Behind Every Corner
by agsf175
Summary: He had heard that love hid behind every corner. He felt like that was an overstatement. Either that or he must be walking in a straight line, with no corners for love to hide behind and jump out at him. Maybe he only had one corner. He had his chance. For awhile he was comfortable with the thought. Not comfortable, rather he just accepted the thought.
1. Chapter 1

**Well, this is my first story on this account and I started off on Criminal Minds. Since it is the summer I've been constantly watching it and I've had my idea for this character for a long time and I ended up writing again and the entire summer I worked on this story. It looks to be roughly forty chapters. This is just the beginning. Other chapters will probably end up being longer. For the rest of the summer I will update when I can which I'll try and do weekly. But once school starts it'll probably slow down. But don't worry. I will finish this story I have pretty much the entire story done so it's not like theres a lot of work to do but... theres still work to do. The parts of the story will be organized into the seasons and at the beginning of each season there will be a quote rather than a quote every chapter.**

 **Alright. So here we go...**

 **Obviously I do not own Criminal Minds.**

* * *

 ** _SPRING_**

 _Someday, everything will make sense. So for now, laugh at the confusion, smile through the tears, be strong and keep reminding yourself that everything happens for a reason. -John Mayer_

* * *

Chapter 1

"Excuse me…" came a small voice from the other side of the lab desk. The woman behind the desk, Natalie Grierson was picking up a bunch of files and papers she dropped onto the floor trying to scramble out of the classroom as quick so she could get to her other job. Whoever told her that doing two jobs would be a fun and rewarding experience must have been on drugs. Because she was ready to start pulling her hair out right before falling asleep for an entire week.

"Uh. Sorry." she said pulling herself back up and placing the messy pile onto the top of the desk. She already knew that her blonde hair was probably going in every different direction. Not only that but she wasn't really wearing the best clothes. She had about three hours of sleep and pulled out the first thing she found in her drawers which happened to be a t-shirt from three years ago, which was ripped in some places, and a pair of jeans that were worn probably over a thousand times, that were also ripped in some places… she couldn't remember if that was how they came or not.

"I'm looking for Dr. Natalie Grierson. I called the hospital but they said I would find her here."

"Yeah. Right here." she said with a small laugh. "You're looking at her." she said awkwardly as he continued to stare at her. "What do you need? Actually could you walk and talk. I need to get to the parking lot on the other side of campus and I don't really have much time."

"Uh, sure." he said putting his hands in his pocket nervously. She eyed him wondering if he was a student who was about to ask her a million questions. "A doctor you met up with a while ago was found dead this morning." he said. Well he's not a student. "Dr. Robert Grant." He said as they started walking up towards the exit of the large lecture hall. "We saw you on the surveillance footage when you were with him three days ago at a diner in the city. He was found dead in the alley. I just need to ask you a couple of questions." the man pulled out a wallet but it wasn't a wallet and showed her his badge that read FBI.

"He's dead?" Natalie responded. "How…?"

"We believe he was murdered. You might have been the last person to see him alive."

"And you think I'm a suspect in the murder don't you? That was the first time I met the man. He was asking me to consult on one of his cases. I was also trying to persuade him in coming to Georgetown for a guest lecture for the chemistry department."

"Do you mind me walking with you to your car?" he asked. "I'm afraid I have more questions."

"Depends. Are you going to arrest me?" she asked pulling the files together and cradling them all in her arms.

"Even if you did kill him we currently don't have enough evidence to arrest you. I could bring you in technically for questioning but I wouldn't even be able to hold you for long because I don't have any grounds to do so. Besides we don't think you match the profile. You've been to very high standard schools and the person we're looking for has little to no college education."

She stared at him baffled for a second. Who the hell was this guy? Profiles? "Okay." she said not looking away from the agent. "I need a bag." she muttered to herself. She could have sworn that he laughed at her a little but she ignored it and then continued out the door with the FBI agent in tow. It was strange that he was an FBI agent. He was the complete opposite of what she would imagine an agent to look like. He was skinny, probably didn't have an ounce of muscle on his body.

"I was wondering if you could tell me if he was in a hurry to get somewhere? Or perhaps did he seem like he was being followed? Maybe he mentioned something to you?"

"I never talked to him before, in person anyway, I talked to him through email to set up the meeting. So it's not like we were friends. I don't think he was in much of a hurry. He forced me to eat there with him but I didn't want to. I took most of my food home."

"You said you were going to be working on something with him? What was it?"

"Well. There's a patient at Georgetown he was going to be coming in and helping. He mostly does research though. He was staring on a new project recently and read my thesis from graduate school and that's how he found me.." she explained. "I couldn't even tell you if he was married. I just met him. He was practically a stranger."

"Did you notice anything weird about his research? Maybe he was in competition with others."

"It's alzheimer's research. There's a large amount of people working on it. He was just starting out in his research. There wouldn't be anyone trying to hurt him for that." she explained.

"Could you think of anything else? I know you didn't know him that well but you are the last one to see him alive."

"I'm sorry." she responded. "I don't know anything about him. I wish I could tell you more."

"About what you said... You said you didn't know he was married?" he ended the sentence with a question mark looking at her through narrowed eyes. It just didn't make any sense to him.

"Yeah. I mean I suppose he wasn't."

"Why do you say that?" he asked. "He was married. That's why I'm curious."

"Oh." she frowned and shifted the files around in her cradle. "He wasn't wearing a wedding ring."

The FBI agent nodded his head. He was wearing the wedding ring when his body was found so he took it off to meet her? He questioned it, but came up quickly with the notion that he was cheating on his wife. It was the only thing that made sense. Perhaps he was trying to get with Dr. Grierson and that's why he wasn't wearing it when he met her. He probably did something like this before.

"Listen. I have to go. I'm in a hurry to get to the hospital. I have surgery… a date with a tumor actually." she stated walking away from him towards the parking lot.

"Even though you didn't know him that well you could be affected by it and not even realize it. Do you think it's a good idea to perform surgery right now?"

"Sorry. I don't even know your name...But listen up. I know that it seems weird that I'm just ignoring this but in fact I'm really just postponing it. I have surgery to save a man's life and I don't have the time to deal with the tragic murder of this man I met once. So if you don't mind please let me deal with it myself."

"I'm sorry if I stepped out of bounds but…" He let his sentence trail off and then opened his mouth and asked, "You weren't romantically involved with him were you? It's only because you said you would talk with email. And you didn't know he was married it just seemed a bit odd to me that he wasn't wearing a wedding ring."

"In fact you did step out of bounds. You don't know me. I don't know you. You know nothing about me." she shouted. "And no! I was not."

"I… didn't mean…"

"I have to go. I'm sorry Mr. FBI that is telling me how to do my job but I gotta go." Natalie yelled angrily. "If you don't mind, you could reach me at the hospital or some other time. Goodbye."

"Dr. Spencer Reid."

"What?"

"My name...Spencer Reid."

* * *

Reid finished the case with the rest of the team when he got back from interviewing that woman named Natalie. It was close to eleven at night when they finally came back to the BAU to just sit down and not worry about someone out there. At least for tonight. He was surprised Hotch let him go alone to talk to Dr. Grierson. They usually worked in pairs but this was an all hands on deck kind of thing and eventually the unit chief just let him go by himself. It might have a been a bad choice considering the first thing he thought when he saw her was how pretty she was.

Reid was at his desk trying to finish some paperwork when Garcia came over to his desk followed by Morgan. "We're going to go and get food do you want to come?" Morgan asked.

"No, I'm kind of tired." he responded.

"Oh come on!" Garcia begged. "You don't come anymore."

It was true Spencer would occasionally give in and go with them wherever even though a lot of times he would rather just go home and read. Sometimes Morgan would try and get him to hit on girls but he was never good at it and he just didn't want to. After Maeve there wasn't a lot of determination to get out and actually move on. He had heard that love hid behind every corner. He felt like that was an overstatement. Either that or he must be walking in a straight line, with no corners for love to hide behind and jump out at him. Maybe he only had one corner. He had his chance. For awhile he was comfortable with the thought. Not comfortable, rather he just accepted the thought. "Don't you ever just want to go home?" he asked.

"What fun is in that?"

"There could be a lot of fun in that actually. I was going to go home and read this book about chicken farming." he said. "Are you aware of the incredible injustice there is with big name brands and their chicken farmers. They aren't nearly being paid enough and some of them will even face poverty or losing their jobs. Not to mention the company doesn't pay for a lot of the costs to keep a farm running."

"Reid." Morgan said. "Are you even listening to yourself? You need to get out more."

Spencer thought about that for a second realizing that his facts were now moving to something like… chicken farming when they used to be at least somewhat interesting. He frowned and decided his book could wait, even just for a night and got up from the desk and agreed to go with them.

* * *

"Another." Natalie said to the bar tender. She slammed the glass onto the bar and looked to the bottle of whiskey behind the counter. She knew she should slow down but in the moment all logic went out the window.

"You know Dr. G. You're past your usual number of drinks. I'm gonna have to call someone." the bartender told her taking her glass. "In fact. I think you're done."

"Call who? I have no one to call. Remember? My sort of friends are on call at the hospital, and I'm not married. I swear you do more harm than good you know. You point out the three things that make me depressed in one sentence. Alone. My job and my friends jobs take up our entire life. Probably never going to get married." she counted the three things putting up a finger to represent each one.

"Oh you'll get married…"

"Yeah right. Look at the line of guys just waiting for a turn with me. See them all? They might be invisible you just have to look really hard." she shouted moving her arm out gesturing to the empty space between the bar and tables. She actually almost hit a guy walking past her and she decided it was best that she shouldn't move again.

"Any guy would be lucky to have you…"

"How many guys are you seeing there? I think you're the drunk one. Because I see zero."

"I thought they were invisible?" he asked. "Besides, I see at least one guy eyeing you from across the room."

"GREAT. A drunk psychopath to come feel me up." Natalie said rather loudly. People shot her looks from the seats next to her. "Fantastic. I think there's a wedding shop down the street let me just go quick and pick one out."

"He doesn't look like a psychopath…" he said.

"Tom. That doesn't mean anything."

"He's looking at you like you're the only person in the bar Dr. G."

"Next time you find yourself in a dark alley with a bullet in you, don't call me. Then I won't have to listen to you telling me about how depressing my life is."

"Aw. Hunny. You come here because you pulled a bullet out of me. And let's get one thing straight I didn't call you. Why are you drinking so much anyway?" It was true that Natalie and her friend Patrick came to this bar for the sole reason to support Tom. About two years ago Natalie and Patrick were walking around the city when they heard gun shots. And found Tom in a alley. It was a strange night.

"I lost my patient in emergency surgery. It was a complicated surgery but I should have been able to do it."

"Things happen." Tom said trying to comfort her.

" _Things_ don't happen to me." she sneered.

"Are you okay? I realized that it was you a little while ago." said a voice Natalie barely remembered. Like in a dream maybe?

"Dr. Reid!" she yelled finally realizing the owner of the voice, well once she turned to see his face. "Is this the psychopath you were telling me about?" she asked Tom pointing to Reid.

"Psychopath?" he muttered. "I hardly think I could be defined as a psychopath…"

"She's a little drunk. She's not all there." Tom said cleaning out a beer mug.

"I'll have you know that I am perfectly lucid."

"Yeah. Sure." he said rolling his eyes. "

"Do you normally come here and drink a lot?" Dr. Reid asked.

"Oh, all the time. Especially on Tuesdays." she said sarcastically with a smile. Tom started to laugh and roll his eyes at her, well, what she would call a joke.

"It's Wednesday." Reid said obliviously and not really understanding the joke or quote.

"I know." she said slightly upset that he didn't pick up on it. "I'm not _that_ far gone."

"Dr. Grierson maybe I should take you home?"

"Natalie. Drop the whole doctor thing I hate it." Natalie commanded swatting his hands away from her.

"You hate being called Dr?"

"Makes me feel old."

"I call you Dr. all the time." Tom commented frowning.

"Oh. Look another reason you make me feel depressed. NUMBER FOUR!" she said pointing her finger at him. "I should start writing these things down. You know you two should do a tag team. Take turns telling me what makes my life suck." she said with a drunken laugh.

"I didn't see anyone with you so….so I thought I'd offer." he explained nervously.

Natalie looked to Tom with a plea. Her plan was just to stay here and have him drive her home. "You're just going to let me go home with a stranger?"

"You knew his name!" Tom said quickly to defend himself. "Go home with the psychopath. It'll be another four hours until I'm done here." Tom told her. "Besides. You could take him if you needed to."

Spencer eyed the big boned bar tender and wondered why he even came over here or why they kept calling him a psychopath. He checked what he was wearing and it was just his standard clothing.

"Fine, fine." she said getting up but then almost falling onto the floor but Spencer caught her and helped her regain balance. "Do you have any coffee?" she asked Spencer.

"We can stop somewhere."

"Perfect." she said and then started walking towards the door but when they got to the doorway she pulled on Spencer's sleeve and then turned around. "Yo! I'm not gonna forget" she yelled pointing to Tom. "You owe me a whiskey."

"Shut up!" one of the guys at a table shouted to her.

"Hey! No one was talking to you." she said pulling up her arms like a "come at me" gesture. She swore she heard the FBI agent laugh again behind her back. "Why don't you just shut your mouth and mind your own DAMN BUSINESS!" Reid started to pull her back away and out of the bar before she started a fight.

"Let's just get you home, alright?"

"Fine. Lead the way." Spencer walked out the door and held the door open for Natalie. "Why are you here anyway?"

"I'm over there." Spencer said pointing to his car. "My team members dragged me here after work. Said it was important for me to get out for once. Which I'm starting to think if true because I found myself reading a lot about farming lately and I've never been interested in farming. They left already and I lied and I told them I was going to stay and talk to this girl but I really just spotted you and I was going to offer to take you home." he said explaining himself. "Do you have blood on your neck?" he asked. "Or do you know that you have blood on your neck?"

She started rubbing her neck. "The blood splattered up and hit me in the neck and all over. I don't want to talk about it." she let out a breath while looking to the ground. "So what? I'm not a special girl you wanted to talk to?" she asked mocking him her mood changing.

"What no! That's not what I meant! I just-" he got extremely nervous realizing that she might have been offended.

"Whoa. Calm down." she said holding up her hands. Geez. This guy took things way too seriously.

"Is your patient fine?" he asked. "Why didn't you wash it off? You know someone could get the wrong idea and call the police" he was referring to the blood on her neck again.

"Oh. No. He died." she said. "Nasty car accident. It was just a bomb waiting to go off." she said looking down to the pavement. "Pew." she said making a blowing up motion with her hand and adding the sound effect. "I must've missed it." she said pointing to her neck.

"Well what about the guy with the tumor?" Spencer asked. He was asking way too many questions.

"Oh, he's fine."

"Is this how you deal with your emotions?" he asked. "You know it's not healthy to not deal with grief."

"Sometimes." Natalie said with a smile. "Sometimes it's the only thing that works."

"Do you really come here to drink so much? You and the bartender really knew each other."

"What?"

"You said you come a lot." he stated.

She just nodded her head while laughing to herself lightly. "I was joking." said dryly. Spencer nodded not really sure how that answered his question but he didn't ask any more on the matter.

"So. Where do you live?" Spender asked.

"I'll show you the way." she said. "Besides you promised me coffee." she opened the car door and got in before Spencer and made herself comfy in his car. "Come on. Dude. I got work in the morning." Spencer got in the car and started the ignition and drove out of the parking lot.

"On your records it said you went to Yale." Spencer said trying to make small talk. "I was going to attend there if I didn't get into MIT."

"Yes. Thanks for reminding me." she said tiredly. "Any more remarks?" Spencer didn't get the hint and decided to keep going even though Natalie really wasn't in the talking mood.

"And that you have a phD in chemistry, also from Yale." he continued. "I have one too actually."

"Super." she muttered.

"I actually read your thesis." Spencer said to her looking to her with a glance and not even hearing her comment. "It was quite interesting. What made you want to give up research and become a surgeon? You seemed to enjoy the subject on alzheimer's and the chemicals in the brain."

"These are some deep thoughts doctor. Could I take the time to remind you that I am drunk?" she asked closing her eyes. And then she opened them again and asked, "You met me today and you already read my thesis?"

"I'm just curious is all." he said. "When our technical analyst looked you up I couldn't help myself."

"You know you're not the only one with a computer and Google. What made you want to give up all of your fancy degrees and instead work for the FBI?"

"I wanted to catch killers the degrees help me believe it or not." he said. "Actually for a matter of fact I've had a lot of information to give for the cases that we had because of my degrees. I also have a pretty great memory so everything that I ever read helps the cases. I feel very useful at work. Even though I ramble and my teammates don't really like it when I do that. But I'm just offering all the information I have."

After listening to Reid's long explanation, she not only got to experience a "ramble", but she learned why he wanted to work for FBI. "And I wanted to save lives."

"So you became a trauma surgeon?"

"So I joined the military and became a medic...then a trauma surgeon." she said with a smile. "I served four years in Afghanistan."

He hesitated to say anything but he eventually opened his mouth and said, "You never told me where you lived."

"You never took me for coffee so I guess we're square." she said laughing. "Just take me to the hospital. It'll be easier. I work at Georgetown University Hospital. I'll sleep in the on call room."

"Are you sure?." he asked. "You should probably sleep in some sort of comfortable bed or somewhere you feel at peace."

"Well. I'm not looking for comfort. I'm looking for a bed. Besides. I have to get up in a couple hours anyway. The closer to the hospital I am the more sleep I can get." she said nuzzling into the car seat.

"If you say so..." he said with a smile.

"Did you find the killer?" Natalie asked abruptly.

"Uh. Yes. As it turned out the killer was murdering men who were unfaithful to their wives." he said. "In fact the killers were two women who were working together. A mistress and the wife started with the man that they had in common and continued on finding other men. Women often-"

"Good." she said quietly while he was still talking, she was almost falling asleep while thinking about how long he was going to talk. She must of really fell asleep because next this she realized she was at the hospital and Dr. Reid was shaking her awake. "I'm up. I'm up." she said shoving his hand away from her shoulder.

"Maybe I should help you in…" he said. "I don't want you to hurt yourself."

"I'll be fine…Good thing I'm at a hospital." she said opening the door and pulling herself out of the car. "You should go home or something."

Spencer noticed her almost fall out his car rather than simply get out so he turned his car off got out of the car and hurried over to take her into the hospital.

"I told you I could get there fine…"

"You look like you could fall over any second." he said. "And I would feel much better knowing you're inside and safe and not wandering around a parking lot somewhere."

"Fine. Whatever." she said giving in. "Let's go."

 **So that's it for Chapter 1. Thanks for reading! It turned out longer that I thought it would because I decided to combine the smaller prologue with the actual first chapter. I'll update as soon as the next chapter is ready to go!**

 **Thanks again.**

 **Review, favorite, or follow if you like it!**

 **Amelia.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Behind Every Corner**

 **Chapter 2**

 **I do not own Criminal Minds**

* * *

 _ **SPRING**_

* * *

She directed him towards the hospital doors and two of them entered together. Although the large amount Natalie had drank that night she wasn't swaying as much as she should have been. Spencer however had to awkwardly smile at workers walking around the hospital as he escorted a drunk woman through the lobby. He did receive some speculative glances but he tried his best to not let them get to him. They walked through the hallways and she pulled him towards an on call room that she didn't think would have anyone in it and when they got there she was right. No one was there.

"Thanks." she said opening the door to the on call room.

"Happy to help." he responded. Without a thought she started to take off her pants and then her shirt. And there she stood in front of him in nothing but her underwear and her bra. She bent down and pulled scrubs out of her purse and started to put it on. He wondered why he was watching this or why he was still there. He should have just left.

"Sorry." she said realizing he was still standing in the door way. "I didn't even think…" she was pulling up her scrub pants. Spencer's face was all red and he adverted his eyes away from her and down to the ground instead.

"It's fine. I-I-I should have just left…" he stammered and then began to walk out the door, he turned back around to say something else but then just raised his hand to wave. "I'll… Goodbye." he said

"Sure." she responded pulling on her top.

Spencer couldn't get the picture of her in her bra and underwear out of his mind. It might as well been an imprint in his brain. The black underwear and black lace bra made her look so sexy...No! He subconsciously told himself. He needed to get the picture out of his mind. His face was probably still incredibly red as he walked out of the hospital. He couldn't help but wonder how he was going to get through not thinking about how she just undressed in front of him.

He got back in his car and let out a huge breath. Natalie was different from what he was used to. In fact she was much different. Sarcastic. Joked a lot. Drank herself until she was wasted and she almost got in a bar fight. And this was all in one night. She was... a lot. But he admitted that she was... entertaining? Unpredictable? And very... go with the flow... Everything he was not. An exact opposite. Reid drove himself home spent the rest of the night rerunning the events in his head. It was odd at how many things he thought he should have done or wish he had done differently with her. And he didn't do much talking to her in the first place. Rolling to his side he wondered if she would even remember the night that just happened. He hoped she did. Because otherwise he would feel like an idiot for never forgetting about it.

Spencer woke up the next morning to the sound of his alarm. He rolled over quickly and turned it off not wanting to hear such an annoying beeping sound in the morning. He laid in bed for a minute and let out a sigh when the first thought that came into his head was about Natalie rather than, well, anything else. He got up from bed and made his usual morning tea and selected a book to take with him to work. He didn't feel like taking the effort and reading something today that he hadn't read in a while so he settled on one of his favorites. _War and Peace._

He shoved it in his brown leather bag on top of the Sherlock Holmes book he always had in there. He normally never read it. It was more like a security blanket. Thinking about it for a bit he wondered if it would be considered odd that he carried around his dead girlfriend's gift to him. But then he shook his head away from the thought deciding that it was none of their business anyway. Whoever the hypothetical "they" was. But who was he kidding, he thought that maybe Natalie would think it would be weird. Natalie was the "they".

He shrugged his shoulders. After all he would probably never see her again anyway. _Well you could ask her out._ The evil thought popped into his head while he was downing the rest of his tea. He wondered if he had the guts or the confidence to do that. Years ago it wouldn't even be a thought but now... but now it was like a battle with himself. _She could be a corner._ Was the next thought that popped in when he thought back to yesterday. When he thought he had been walking in a straight line rather than a zig zag path. Or whatever the path was supposed to be.

* * *

After changing Natalie completely forgot all about the fact that Dr. Reid had seen her... pretty much naked. She shrugged her shoulders while setting an alarm for the morning. She groaned thinking about how much of an idiot she was for drinking so much tonight. Scratching her head she sat down on the bed and tried to get the spinning of the room to subside. However, Dr. Reid... Spencer still lingered in her mind. He was painfully awkward. But at the same time she couldn't help but find it adorable.

Natalie laid down on the bed rubbing her temples and then realized that she should probably eat something. After getting up and purchasing a bag of potato chips from the vending machine she ate the quickly wanting to get to bed. She was already thinking about the amount of coffee she was going to have to consume tomorrow. Natalie rolled to her side and then pulled the cheap blue blankets over her and closed her eyes to go to sleep. Spencer was still unfortunately on her mind but she forced him out and quickly fell asleep.

In the morning Natalie woke up and rolled out the bed with a striking headache. The alarm that had woke her up was still going off and she groaned reaching for her phone. She turned the alarm off cursing at the brightness that her phone gave off.

She got up holding her head and closing her eyes tight. The light from everything was driving her nuts. Natalie walked into the adjoining bathroom and fixed her hair, washed her face, and took a shot of mouthwash that was left in the bathroom deciding that she could care less about who had used it last. Natalie took her purse and walked out of the room and then walked through the hallways until she made it to the locker room for the surgeons.

Opening hers she pulled out fresh scrubs she left, put them on the bench, and then she shoved in her purse. She changed into the fresh scrubs, put on deodorant, sprayed herself with vanilla fragrance, and then put on a thin layer of foundation making her face no look so "hungover". She was here to save people from death rather than looking like death herself.

Walking out of the locker room she made her way to the cafeteria to get coffee in her veins. Thankfully her favorite coffee guy was there and he gave her a large without charging her extra. "Dr. Grierson." she heard from behind her. She turned around and saw one of the interns she was training and frowned wondering what she was going to be doing next. "You're needed for a consult…"

"Alright." she took a huge gulp of coffee and then waited for the intern to move so she could follow and yet he didn't. "I don't know where we're going Steve you need to take me there."

"Oh. Right." he responded. He nervously turned around and brought her to the emergency room.

Four hours later she was sitting in the cafeteria. Siping on her second coffee and filling out a piece of paperwork she didn't trust an intern with. She yawned and then took another sip of coffee. To her surprise someone pulled out a chair put a large chocolate chip muffin in front of her and sat down with her. Natalie looked up to see her closest friend at the hospital. "Thought you had that huge surgery today…" she said shoving the paperwork into the file. "Colectomy?" she asked trying to remember what he had told her yesterday.

"It got moved to this afternoon. I'll be working well into the night." Dr. Patrick Thomas responded.

"Why did they move it?" she asked unwrapping her muffin.

"They had to move surgeries around. Someone's heart needs immediate surgery. It's going down now." he answered. "I was pissed before but jokes on the hospital because since they moved it they'll be paying me overtime. I was supposed to be off when you get off. I'm only here today for the surgery."

"At least you _have_ a surgery today. I have done nothing but consults, teaching in the lab, and paperwork."

"I would kill for that." he said taking a swig of his bottle of Pepsi. "Shouldn't you be like at home or something that guy you were talking with died. Maybe that's why you have no surgeries."

"I'll be sad later when I get off." she responded. "And don't act like I was seeing the guy or something he was like fifteen years older than me."

"I remember a certain someone being pretty excited getting to talk to him."

"About coming to do a surgery. Not jump his bones."

"Keep denying it."

"Alright so what's happening with your love life then? Since you're so eager to make up mine." she said leaning into the table with a smile. Patrick shut his mouth and shook his head already knowing that she was never going to let it go.

"Well. That nurse." he stated. "She was pretty hot."

Natalie rolled her eyes thinking back to yesterday when he told her about some nurse from the sixth floor that he slept with in the on-call room. "What was her name?"

"Uh." Patrick thought about if for longer than he should have. "I'm pretty sure Olivia."

"You told me yesterday it was Bridget." Natalie said sitting back in her chair and crossing her arms with a grin. Patrick scratched the back of his head nervously.

"Well." he said. "Oh well." Natalie really hated how he treated women sometimes. There were times when he was extremely nice and romantic and then he would just go on some downward spiral and sleep with women he barely knew. He didn't talk about relationships much. But Natalie knew he was lonely considering all the times he had invited her over to watch movies and eat dinner. When they met he asked her out but she refused when he started talking to her with "I think you're suffering from a lack of vitamin me." She vowed to this day that she threw up in her mouth. And they were best friends ever since.

"Tom said you had a pretty rough night. Did you and that guy do it?"

"When did you see Tom?" she asked furrowing her brow. "And no... he drove me to the hospital and then left."

"He called me this morning and told me to make sure you were okay considering the amount of alcohol you ingested." Patrick said sipping his coffee. "Tell me? Are you sure your liver isn't failing?"

Natalie rolled her eyes "Of course he did." she said shoving another piece of muffin in her mouth. Natalie's pager started to go off and when she pulled it out she saw that it calling her to the ICU. She got up from the table eating another piece of her muffin. "I'll finish it later. I have to go."

"What am I supposed to do with it?!" he shouted as she started to run. She didn't answer so all he did was stare at the muffin on the table.

Natalie made it to the ICU and rushed to where she was being called. "What the hell?!" she shouted coming into the room. "What did you do!?" Natalie rushed into a room crowded with people including her interns. Everyone was crowded around the patient. Natalie had seen the floor when she ran in. The blood spilled all over the floor. She didn't receive and answer from her interns. Natalie watched one of the nurses hook up blood for the patient. "C'mon… Where's the crystalloid?" she mumbled. After the second she saw someone hooking up the IV bags she was looking for and the bleeding started to slow down. Natalie let out a sigh and the nurse across from her pulled up the gauze slowly.

"The stitches are ripped." she said to her and then took a breath before saying. "He's on blood thinners." Natalie nodded her head in understanding.

"Someone look for internal bleeding." she commanded. "There's way to much blood for such simple rip." Natalie pulled out a suture kit from the drawer behind her while a nurse began looking for the internal bleeding.

"It should clot on it's own." he stated he turned the screen to her to view. "Especially since we hooked up the saline."

Natalie agreed with the nurse once she looked at the monitor. She began redoing the stitches on the abdomen and once everything was under control she turned to the interns.

"What happened?" she asked them getting annoyed.

"We were doing our check like usual, redressing, and then the stitches ripped..." one of the interns responded.

"I think we pulled the dressing off to fast and the stitches had stuck onto the gauze."

"Listen to me." she said. "You're lucky I made it here fast enough! And you're lucky the nurses were watching! Next time you won't be so lucky! You're doctor's." Natalie walked away from the ICU telling the head nurse to give those interns the paperwork. She felt like she could punch a hole in the wall and a few times she thought she was going to. But she restrained herself and went back downstairs to get her stupid muffin.

Natalie sat down at the table and started chomping on her muffin once more. "Geez what happened to you." Patrick said folding up his newspaper and setting it on the table. Looking up and down at her. It was then that she noticed that there was blood all over the top of her shoes and some on her shirt and pants.

"I don't want to talk about it." Natalie finished her muffin and then her coffee, which had become cold, which irritated her even more. "Three more hours…" she muttered.

"Thanks for reminding me how much more longer I'm going to be here." he said frowning.

She looked to the newspaper and then back to Patrick. "Since when do you pay attention to the news?"

"Crosswords are news too right?" he joked.

"Sure." Natalie said with a laugh. "Well." she said getting up from her seat again. "I have an ER shift so I'll be there."

"I have paperwork I could be doing…" Patrick responded thinking about the pile of paperwork he had to do.

"I'll see you tomorrow." Natalie said waving and walking out of the cafeteria before buying another cup of coffee from the vender. She then walked to the ER through the hallways and down the stairs. Taking a place at the counter she pulled three charts and let out a breath and started work.

After everything in the ER, including being bled on, peed on, and popping a shoulder back into place, which was one of her least favorite things to do, she found herself back in the locker room pulling out her purse and realizing that she was without a car. It was back at the bar. She momentarily placed her head on the locker realizing that she in fact could not leave the hospital yet.

* * *

All day Spencer sat at his desk mindlessly doing paperwork. Morgan, even though he had an office came over to sit and do his own paperwork. Reid concluded that he just needed to be around people rather than stuffed in an office alone all day. For most of the day, well actually the whole day, he thought about that woman. Natalie. Why he was thinking about her so much was crazy. She probably didn't even remember him from last night. He bit his inner cheek and tapped his pencil on the desk thinking about how embarrassing it was when she started to undress in front of him and he stood there like some idiot. He would get uncomfortable sharing a room with Morgan let alone getting changed with someone around him... and this was a girl, not Morgan.

Morgan didn't care much about personal space. Morgan and Natalie were probably very similar. Where as Spencer was on the opposite end of the spectrum. He couldn't get the images of her out of his head and it was driving him crazy. He tried to do everything to get her off his mind. Including trying to read. Sure he got through a book today during lunch but it took him his whole lunch hour. Which was something that rarely happened. "Hey, kid." he heard Morgan call. He looked up to Morgan staring at him with look of annoyance. "Kid, I've been trying to get your attention now for like five minutes."

"Sorry." he said. "I didn't get much sleep." Spencer lied. Anything was better than telling Morgan that he was constantly thinking about some girl. "What is it?"

"Didn't get much sleep?" Morgan repeated back. "What? You hit off with that girl you wanted to talk to? Did you do the walk of shame this morning?" Spencer realized the flaw in his lie. He really needed to think more before he spoke.

"What? No." he said defensively. "I had to drive a friend home." he lied again thinking that what he said was better but it wasn't. "But that's not why I'm tired. I had trouble sleeping that's all." Reid said quickly. He really was digging his own grave wasn't he?

"A friend?" Morgan asked.

Reid nodded hoping he would drop the subject and go back to doing paperwork but he knew that wouldn't happen. "Yepp." Reid said popping the p.

"Lying is gonna get you nowhere." Morgan said giving him a grin. Reid sat back in his chair debating himself whether or not to mention Natalie.

"It's true." he responded. "I drove her home and I went home and that was it." It was partly true. He actually drove her to the hospital.

"So you sweet on her?" Morgan asked directly continuing to watch Reid squirm at his desk.

"I don't know." he said. He wasn't sure what to really say concerning Natalie. If sweet on her meant that he couldn't get her out of his head then yes. But he met her once. Well twice. But basically once considering the second time she was drunker than a frat guy at a football game. He let it escape, a small smile came to his lips, when he thought about how she almost got in the fight with those men at the bar.

"Oh. Look." Morgan said in a high pitched voice. "You are sweet on her." Morgan sat back in his chair and eyed Reid up. "So are you going to ask her out?" he questioned.

"I mean… I don't know." he told him honestly. "I'm not exactly great at asking out girls… Besides. She probably wouldn't want to go out with me."

"Well why not?"

"Because she's blonde, beautiful, and perfect." he muttered under his breath. Where was he even getting the perfect from? He met her once! He kept reminding himself this fact. "I only met her once."

"So what?" Morgan asked. "Reid. How many times are you exactly supposed to meet someone and then ask her out?"

"No. It's just… I don't know much about her." he told Morgan. "Just that she went to Yale, she has a PhD in chemistry, she was a medic in Afghanistan and she's a surgeon. While teaching some lectures on the side."

"Sounds impressive." he said nodding his head.

"Exactly." Reid frowned. "What if she says no?"

"So what? Then you never see her again and move on."

"I don't know."

"Reid."

"Morgan."

"I haven't seen you pine over a girl this much… since Maeve. And you're not going to do anything about it?" It was true Spencer couldn't remember the last time he actually had thought this much about someone.

"I just… What if she laughs?" Reid asked. "She was probably something like prom queen… and I never really had much luck with being around people like that."

"She's not going to laugh Reid." Morgan said sternly. "If she laughs then you can come and blame me for this whole thing. But if she says yes. You owe me. Big time."

"Oh. Like what am I going to owe you?" he asked.

"I don't know. Paperwork."

"Morgan I'm not doing your paperwork."

"You say that now. But you wait and see. On your wedding day with this girl instead of a gift I'm going to be handing you paperwork."

For the rest of the day Reid finished up his paperwork and thought more about Natalie. Which wasn't shocking. Spencer got up from his seat and took his things to go before realizing something. He drove her to work last night. She didn't have a car. He pulled out his phone after looking up the phone number to the hospital. He put it into his phone and thought for a second. What the hell was wrong with him? He stared down at the number. Was he really going to call the hospital. His hand shook and he hit the call button. He put it up to his ear and the quickly hung up. He was pretty sure there was something wrong with him. He breathed out a sigh of relief when he ended the call quickly.

But she still didn't have a car. He hit redial and mustered up all of the confidence he could and managed to stay on the line until there was no turning back.

* * *

 **This is much shorter than I thought it was... but to combine this chapter and the next chapter is just crazy and then that would be really long... the updates will actually be more than just once a week probably since I have all of the early chapters basically done... they just need some tweaking. Where as when we can past 10 or 20 they need more than some tweaking...**

 **I tried to make the scene with her in the ICU as close to something as possible. Sorry if there's some mistake with it all. Crystalloid is sodium chloride solution or saline solution used to replenish the blood that is lost. I did my best.**

 **It's cool to see that I have reviews already! Thanks so much! And I'm glad you like it so much!**

 **Review, favorite, or follow if you like it!**

 **Amelia.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Behind Every Corner**

 **Chapter 3**

 **I do not own Criminal Minds**

* * *

 _ **SPRING**_

* * *

Natalie walked out of the hospital and pulled out her phone getting ready to call a cab. She sat down on the bench closest to her and let out a giant puff of hair feeling the relief of sitting down. "Natalie!" someone shouted from the direction of the parking lot. "Dr. Grierson!" she turned to see who it was. Spencer Reid. She narrowed her eyes wondering what on Earth he was doing back at the hospital. He ran over to her and then stopped in front of her giving her a light smile.

"Dr. Reid." she said. "What are you doing here?"

"You're car...was still at the bar when I brought you here. I thought I would come here and give you a ride back... To your car" he said. "I-I-I I'm sorry I should've talked to you first instead of coming here…" Natalie smiled at his uncomfortable nervousness around her. It was cute. "Uh. You can call me Spencer by the way." he muttered.

"When did you get here?" she asked. "And didn't I tell you last night to drop the whole Dr. thing with me?" she said laughing lightly.

Spencer nervously laughed again, realizing that she did indeed tell him to call her Natalie and not Dr. But this also met that she did in fact remember last night. "Uh. Sorry." he was shifting around in his spot. "A couple minutes ago." he said. "I, uh, called the hospital and asked when you got off. I told them that I had more questions for you. I don't though." after seeing her face, a furrowed brow and slight tension, when he told her how he knew what time he should show up. He realized that it might have been a mistake. He was horrified realizing that it might actually be kind of creepy. He regretted saying anything. "Um. I'm sorry. That's probably really weird."

"Just excessive." she said with a small laugh. "What would you have done if I left already? Or if I got pulled into a surgery?"

Spencer stared at her for split second letting that sink in. "I don't know. Guess I got lucky." He came over without even thinking about that. She was really making his head fuzzy. She was able to make him an idiot without even being around him. "H-H-How was your shift?" he asked changing the subject rolling back and forth on his feet before leading her towards his car.

"It could've been better." she responded shrugging her shoulders thinking back to the various consults she made today. And then the whole thing in the ICU. She was going to have to scrub these shoes when she got home. And soak everything in peroxide. She subconsciously tried to hide the blood stains.

Natalie got into Spencer's car and he climbed in after. "Do you mind if we stop at a coffee shop on the way?" he asked. "I'm picking up some research journals from a friend."

"Sure. It's fine." she responded shooting him with a smile. "What's your research on... if you don't mind me asking?"

"Oh. Well. My friend's girlfriend is a doctor at Bethesda and a lot of times she'll give me some research articles and reports the hospitals put out or receive. It's easier to stay up to date that way and then I don't have to pay for it. Plus she thinks this way I'll stay in touch with her. And spy on her boyfriend and protect him for her." he explained.

The car ride was quiet most of the way but they reached the coffee shop quickly and Spencer got out of his car. "D-Do you want anything?" he asked her looking in through the window. He wasn't sure if he was supposed to ask that or not. He didn't really take people with him anywhere.

"No. Thanks. I'll be here." she responded.

"I'll try and be quick."

He ran into the coffee shop and Natalie watched as he stopped at a large muscular man sitting at one of the tables. Must be his friend she thought. Spencer took a large yellow envelope from him and nodded his head thanking him.

They stood there and talked with each other for a little while before he came back out. Natalie sat in the car fiddling with her thumbs wondering if they were talking about her. They probably weren't talking about her... why would they? She let her head back on the rest and thought about Spencer. She thought about him and how different he was. It was refreshing. Most of the time it felt like she was meeting they same people and by the same people she meant the same guys. The same trying to get big muscles and stand out kind of guy. The guy that was a jerk to girls when their friends were around. She tried to imagine Spencer even being a jerk but no image came to mind.

* * *

While the time that Spencer was away all he could think about was that he wanted to ask this woman out on a date but he wasn't exactly sure how to even do that. She probably already thought he was creepy and decided she wanted to get far away from him. She was probably just being nice. "That her?" Morgan asked him glancing out the window of the coffee shop.

"Yes." Spencer said quickly. He was starting to feel like he was away from the car awhile. But really he wasn't. It sure felt like forever. "I, um, I'm nervous. How do I make myself not nervous?" he asked.

"Reid." Morgan said. "Just calm down. Look at her. She's not scary."

"Really? Because I'm terrified."

"Remember? The worse that could happen would be she says no. And then you never see her again." Morgan told him giving him a pat on the shoulder.

"Okay." Reid said nodding his head feeling a bit more confident. "One more thing..." he said and Morgan raised his brow. "How do I make sure I don't throw up?"

Morgan left out a sigh. "You're not going to throw up, Reid." He was trying to figure out what to say to Spencer to make him feel better. "Well, how did you ask Maeve out?"

"I didn't" he said. "We talked on the phone about my headaches every week and it just sort of... happened... we started talking more and more and then we just got... close."

"Reid, You will be fine." Morgan gave him a wide smile that made Spencer feel a little better but not much. "Now, go. Before she gets bored out there in your car."

Spencer nodded and left the coffee shop and went back towards the car.

She watched Spencer come out of the coffee shop with the envelope in hand. He got into the car and put it in the back seat. Natalie felt the man in the shop watch her. He never took his eyes off her. Natalie couldn't help but think it was funny when Spencer and him stood next to each other. That man was double his size. If not triple.

"Ready?" he asked.

"Of course." she responded.

"Alright." Spencer pulled out and then drove her back to the bar to get back to her car.

Generally the ride was quiet. However, Natalie was used to talking so much, the silence was killing her. She realized it when she was around people that weren't very talkative. All Natalie wanted to do was not shut up. She pegged herself as a quiet person but maybe she was completely wrong.

"So what exactly do you do at the FBI?" she asked.

"I'm apart of he Behavioral Analysis Unit." he responded. "I help catch killers by understanding how they think and how they act." he started to explain. "It's pretty interesting. Uh, we usually take how the killer murders and build an entire backstory for the unsub, unknown subject, and that'll narrow it down to the person we're looking for. A lot of times we can even get the killer to talk to us, or open up, because they feel like we're the only ones that understand them."

"Sounds interesting actually." she said.

"It really is." he added. "I go all over the nation." he said with a small laugh. "Sometimes the people have a psychological reason they do what they do or even have a disorder that makes them believe they aren't doing anything wrong. Like hallucinations or a different perception of reality." he explained she thought he was done but he paused to take a breath and continue to ramble. "Most serial killers just grew up in a household that made them that way. Like abuse or seeing something that their brain can't understand or handle at the time."

"Like a modern day superhero. All you need is a cape."

"I wonder, if a modern day superhero would wear a cape." Spencer pulled into the bar parking lot from last night and scanned the lot's cars. "Which car is yours?"

"The red one." she said pointing to a red Jeep Wrangler.

Spencer pulled next to the car and put it in park. Natalie got out of the car and pulled her purse with her. "Thank you." she said to him leaning into the car window. Natalie took out her car keys and then unlocked the car and opened the door getting ready to get in. She got ready to toss her purse in and then herself into the front seat.

"Wai….Wait! Natalie." she heard him say. Little did she know that he was already regretting that he spoke up. He felt a wave of anxiety wash over himself. There was no stopping now. He was going to have to say something... His mouth went dry and he felt like he was coming off some bad high.

"Yeah?" she said looking back into the window. God, she was so pretty. And God, his entire body was sweating.

"Uh." he said nervously. "I'm sorry. I'm a bit…" he paused with a laugh. "Would you want to… to go out with me? Like on….a date?" Natalie stared at him a little and thought about it for a second. He was a stuttering mess. "I'm sorry I-I-I shouldn't have done that." he said quickly. "I should just go. Forget I said anything."

"What? No!" she said stopping him from putting the car in reverse. "You didn't give me enough time…. I would love to go on a date with you."

"Oh." he said surprised. What surprised Spencer the most was how calm he became when she said yes. He felt a rush of happiness and relief come over him, like the worst part was over. Finding someone that he even semi liked was a challenge in itself. "Really?"

"What are you doing right now?" she yelled into the car.

"Well. I guess… nothing really. I was going to read when I got home."

Natalie shut the door to her car and locked it again, after getting her purse, and then got back into the car. She didn't really give him a choice. She just got in the car. "Let's go somewhere now." she said. Setting her purse back down on the floor of the car.

"Like where?" he asked. "You're in scrubs."

"So?" she responded automatically. "Are these not good enough for you?" teasing him slightly. She knew he didn't mean anything by it but she couldn't help but tease him slightly. But she did remember that there were slight bloodstains all over her. She figured. _Oh well._ And didn't let it bother her.

"I-I-I just thought that maybe you would want to change.." he mumbled. "I was only suggesting…"

All she could think was that he took things way too seriously, she was going to have to fix that if he planned on being around her. "It's fine. I was only kidding." she said laughing. "These are comfy... Even if there's blood on them. So it's five...dinner?"

"Uh... yeah." he responded. "Where to?"

"Surprise me." she responded. "I'll eat anything."

"Anything?" he asked furrowing his brow.

"Well sure." she said. "Unless you plan on taking me somewhere were they serve like bugs or something gross."

"Actually nearly 2 billion people around the world are eating insects. They're in fact a pretty good source of protein. And a lot of people believe that in the future the human race will have to start eating insects for multiple reasons." Spencer told her.

"Oh." she said nodding her head. "Well. Hopefully I'll be dead by then." Natalie laughed and then said, "I don't do bugs."

Spencer smiled at her. "I was never really much of a fan myself."

"Yeah, but like... I mean I'm horrified of bugs. You can probably deal with them but I get freaked out by an ant."

"Ants?"

"Don't judge me." she said shooting him a look. "Just because you're probably scared of nothing since you run around chasing people who go on killing sprees"

"I'm scared of plenty." he told her. "And they're serial killers. Killing sprees are multiple kills that happen one right after another. Usually there's time, like days, or weeks, in between kills."

"Well. I'm glad I know that now..." she responded. Natalie could have gone her whole life without knowing that. "And...Oh. Really." Natalie said speculating. "Like what are you afraid of?!"

"Uh." Spencer said getting worried that she was going to make fun of him or something. "Well. I'm afraid of the dark." he stated. "Go ahead. Laugh."

"No. I get it." she said nodding her head. "I don't like being outside in the dark. I mean here it's okay but... growing up I used to live in the woods basically and I would be terrified about a bear coming and attacking me."

"That's rather specific."

Spencer drove the car and they ended up at a small diner a couple miles away. Natalie had never been but she had always wanted to stop one night after work. They got out of the car and they walked in. The two of them were seated in a booth and handed menus.

"Do you come here a lot?" she asked.

"Not really. Maybe once or twice to read and drink tea." he said. He didn't even look at the menu. As soon as the waitress handed it to him he had set it down on the edge of the table. "I'm more of a fan of Indian food but there isn't a really good one around here."

"You already know what you want?" she asked glancing over to the menu.

"Yeah. I usually get the same thing everywhere I go. Every place I go to has a thing that I get. Diners however I loop all together." he said looking to her. "It's just easy to order the same thing a lot because then I know I'm going to like what I get. I wouldn't want to order something different and not like it."

"So what are you getting Dr. Reid?" she asked.

"A plain cheeseburger." he stated.

"Hm." she mumbled looking at the menu. "If you never get something different how will you know it's not better? Maybe it's your favorite food and you don't know it yet?" she told him. "What if it's your destiny to try…" she tapped her finger thinking. "...frog legs and you love them."

"Frog legs? Really?" he asked breaking into a smile. "Frogs go through rigor mortis much slower than other animals. It's because they're cold blooded rather than warm blooded… So depending on how fresh the frog legs are when cooked they could even twitch. Which is kind of… creepy and gross." Natalie stared at him while he rambled on about frog legs and she couldn't help but smile at how much nonsense he knew.

"Where did you learn that from?" she asked.

"My co-worker got me this cookbook and in the book it warned about the twitching. She got me it in the hope that I would learn how to cook. I flipped through it but everything sounded like it would take to long to make." he half smiled and then said, "Plus it was a cookbook that told me how to make frog legs so."

Sure she was right about not finding something that could be his favorite food but sometimes he was more picky than he cared to admit and he would rather just play it safe. The waitress took their drink order and then went off to go get them. Natalie was looking through the burgers, the breakfast food, and the seafood that they had. She frowned wondering if she would ever be good with what she picked. She would always regret what she got once she began eating it.

The waitress came back and took Spencer's order and then Natalie was left to decide quickly. "Pancakes." she responded. Spencer shot her a look that might have implied she was crazy.

"Breakfast?" he asked.

"I'm starving." she said. "There's never a bad time for pancakes."

"You really should eat better." he responded. "Do you run around the hospital all day?"

"Well. Yes." she answered. "I'm perfectly fine with my unhealthy lifestyle. I run two miles every night. And I usually drink one of those healthy green drinks in the morning." she said. "I drink a lot of coffee though at work."

"I used to drink a lot of coffee." he said. "I mostly drink tea now but sometimes I cheat and drink it when I really need the caffeine. I've found that tea is better for headaches. I used to have a really bad problem with them but I switched off coffee and take multiple vitamins in the morning now." When he was done talking and she didn't answer right away he felt word vomit coming up and he found himself saying. "The United States consumes nearly 146 billion cups of coffee a year which makes us the top consumer of coffee in the world."

Natalie stared at the outburst that came out of his mouth. She narrowed her eyes at him and said, "How do you know so many of these random facts?" she asked.

"I hardly think that my statistic about coffee was random. We were talking about coffee." Spencer commented. Spencer then got the hint that she thought it was weird that he had known that at the top of his head. "But... I have an eidetic memory. I remember everything I have ever read."

"Oh... Well. That' handy. And clears things up." she said taking another bite of her pancakes. Spencer held back the need to tell her about pancakes. He fought back the facts bouncing around in his head really hard. "You okay?" she asked. She realized that he had been staring at her intently while she ate.

"It's nothing." he said knowing that she was not going to want to hear about the history of pancakes.

"No, no." she said with a smile. "Let it out. Hit me with the facts."

"Pancakes." he said with a smile on his face. "I was just thinking about how the first three pancakes were deemed sacred and they were marked with crosses and then sprinkled with salt to ward off evil."

"I'm really not sure how to feel about that... considering that they're pancakes."

"It's pretty odd to think that pancakes were considered something that ward off evil, yes. But people also believe that wind chimes, bamboo plants, and horseshoes ward off evil. There are a lot of ways that people are superstitious. Like the Chinese build their temples and buildings with the curved roofs because they believed ghosts can only travel through straight lines. I guess that's not as odd as pancakes are but it's probably the cross and the salt that they put on the pancakes to make them ward off evil and had nothing to really do about pancakes at all. Probably just for good luck. I'm rambling… I'm sorry."

"What? No!" she said shooting him a smile. "The part about the Chinese roofs was actually kind of interesting."

"You think so?" he asked shyly with a smile.

Spencer wasn't really used to hearing that his facts were interesting. Or even people listening fully to his long winded explanations of something. Sure his friends from time to time seemed more willing to listen to his facts but most of the time they would just give him a look that would tell him to stop rambling. In fact she didn't even stop him during his ramble or make a weird face she just let him ride it out.

"Well. I mean yeah I would have never known that… or guessed that was why they were like that if you hadn't told me." she said giving him a smile.

Her smile was contagious and he smiled back.

* * *

 **I tried to get this one out as quickly as I could since the last chapter didn't have much to do with them together.**

 **Thanks for the favorites and follows!**

 **Review, favorite, or follow if you like it!**

 **Amelia**


	4. Chapter 4

**Behind Every Corner**

 **Chapter 4**

 **I do not own Criminal Minds**

* * *

 _ **SPRING**_

* * *

Spencer's smile that came on his face after she smiled at him was wide and a way he hasn't smiled in a long time. He knew her for two days but it felt like he had known her forever. "Do you watch television?" she asked him.

Spencer shook his head. "Not a lot. If I do I usually end up watching Star Trek or Dr. Who marathons but that's about it. I read mostly." Natalie grinned because those shows got him exactly. She couldn't imagine him watching anything else. Unfortunately she tried to watch Dr. Who, but couldn't get into it. And she never really watched Star Trek, the television show. So they weren't going to have anything in common on the front of TV.

"I've never seen the television show of Star Trek. But I've seen the movies." she stated.

Spencer, still with a smile on his face, "I'll take what I can get." he said laughing.

"So what do you read then?" she asked.

"Pretty much everything and anything. I read The Iliad for the third time at work. The first time I read it, it was in english, and then I read it in Greek, and now I'm rereading it in english again. I think I like it better in Greek but I decided to reread again to get it all in." All he could think is that she was now going to think he was weird now. He wished he had some sort of filter that would stop him from saying some things.

"You've read it three times?" she asked shocked.

"Yes. I've read other books more times than that. But I've been busy at work so I wanted to read something in English to make it easier. I wanted to start a new book too but like I said I was busy at work so I chose to reread instead. The other three books I'm reading at the moment are research based so I guess they are considered new. I'm trying to read a lot more about religions too." he explained. "Do you read any books?" he asked.

Natalie was shocked counting out that he was reading four books at one time. How did this guy have time to sleep? Or live? "Well. I don't really have the time to read books." she responded. "Unlike you though I don't read in other languages and I don't read classic literature either. Unless Harry Potter is considered classic." she said.

"Maybe you can start? I have a ton of books you could borrow."

"Maybe one day." she responded. "I'm actually not a big reader. I could never get myself to continue to read." For a second of silence she thought about all the books he was reading, opened her mouth and said, "Okay. How the hell are you reading four books at one time?"

"Oh." he said smiling. "Uh. Well I can read 20,000 words per minute." he told her. "So reading is just... easy for me." She stared at him for a second... 20,000? She was beginning to think that he was some type of super human. Spencer was feeling her stare and although it made him feel uncomfortable he wasn't surprised by her stare.

"So what other super powers do you have?" she asked.

He grinned unsure of what to say. "I'm really bad at anything physical... so...I'm afraid the eidetic memory and the fast reading skills are about all I can offer."

Spencer felt the need to hold her hand or touch her. He couldn't help but smile at her and she smiled back. The waitress came and took their plates away once they were done eating and despite knowing that he had to get up early he couldn't care less. He wanted to stay in the diner booth forever. Even though she had been working all day and tried to hide the blood stains on her shirt, pants, and shoes she still seemed to be most beautiful person in the world. Her hair was a mess in a pony tail and she looked exhausted but he still thought she was beautiful. Her hair was very long he noticed and wavy like she just showered or went surfing.

Natalie, leaning over the table, asked. "So, tell me, everything."

"Everything?" he asked.

"Yeah, like siblings? Parents?"

"Well. I don't have siblings, my father wasn't around, and my mother is in Las Vegas, that's where I grew up." he stated. "Well what about you? Are you from the DC area?" he asked.

"No." she said and then started thinking about opening the can of worms. "I'm from Portland, Maine." She didn't like talking about her family much and she hoped he would change the subject to something else. She hated talking about herself more than anything let alone her estranged family.

"What brought you to DC?" he asked noticing that she tensed up when he asked where she was from. She was relieved that the subject changed.

"I got a job offer I couldn't refuse." she responded. "I teach a lecture every once in awhile at the university's medical school about working with stress and then I work at the hospital. I teach mostly but I do the really cool bad-ass surgeries when I can."

He laughed a little bit and then smiled. "What hobbies do you have then? Since you don't read?"

"I run." said. "But I also write."

"Write stories?"

"Sort of." she responded. "If I didn't become a doctor I really wanted to be a director or write for Broadway musicals. I mean none of things I wrote are on par to become shows but it's relaxing and it keeps me occupied." Natalie remembered in high really wanting to do something with musicals but when she gave the idea to her guidance counselor in high school he strongly discouraged her from going for it. Not only that but her family told her she "would never make it". Eventually she was pressured from everyone to go to college and then attend medical school. Natalie always hated when she told her teachers or family what she really wanted to do. Most of the time she got the reaction, "But you're so smart?!". She didn't hate being a doctor. In fact she loved it. But she would always wonder... what if?

"So you're really into music?" he responded.

"Musicals." she repeated. "I love the stage. Someone coming out and singing songs that don't go together like a story just doesn't do it for me like musicals do."

"I know what you mean… What are your favorites?"

"Of course my all time favorite is Les Miserables. Rent is a really good one too." she said. "I really want to see The Color Purple though…. Actually I've read that book it was one of my favorites in school."

It was pretty silent for sometime before either of them said anything. Eventually they got the check and then argued on payment. Spencer won the argument of course and paid for both of them. They started walking out of the diner together and despite everything in his body that wanted to hold her hand he didn't make an movement to do so. His first thought was more towards the germs end of it. He wasn't exactly mentally prepared for it yet. But his second thought was whether or not she would want him to hold her hand. He was thinking way too much into this. He knew it. And yet the thoughts kept rushing back and forth in his mind.

"Do you like ice cream?" he blurted out when they got outside the diner.

"Yes." she responded. "In fact ice cream is one of my favorite foods."

"Let's go then." he suggested. "So then which is better? Ice cream or pancakes?" he asked.

"That's a tough one." she said gritting her teeth. "Probably ice cream. Not necessarily because it is better but because making pancakes requires much more work. And the frozen ones are a disgrace to mankind." Spencer laughed at her remark about the frozen pancakes.

Once back in the car Spencer pulled out of the parking lot. The car ride was quiet until Natalie spoke up. "You don't listen to music?" She had noticed the fact that no music ever played while she was in the car with him.

"Classical music. Except I don't really like classical music in the car... I would rather just listen to the music on my record player." he said. "Beethoven is probably my favorite but I listen to a lot of Mozart and Bach. But lately I've been really interested in listening to Paganini."

"No radio?" she asked.

"I told you I listen to classical music you really think I would turn on the radio and listen to music generated by computers?"

"What _radio_ are you listening to?" she asked thinking more about classical rock rather than today's music that teenagers listen to.

"You listen to your musicals then in the car then?"

"Sometimes... Depends on the musical. But lately I've been listening to the radio." she said looking out the window. "We don't have to turn it on I just wanted to know your taste in music so I can decide if I should end the date now or not." Natalie laughed a bit to herself. "Like tucking and rolling out of the door or something."

"Well then, what's the conclusion?"

"I guess you're worth it." she said looking at him with a crinkled nose. "I mean you don't listen to Kanye West so." Not that he looked like someone who would listen to Kanye West.

"Kanye West?" he asked. "Is that his real name?"

"I guess so."

* * *

When they arrived at the ice cream place both of them got out of the car and walked towards the window to order. Spencer ordered a dish of chocolate ice cream and Natalie ordered a dish of mint chocolate chip ice cream. They returned to the car and sat there eating their ice cream. Spencer watched her eat the ice cream and thought back to the fact that Gideon, his old boss, used to eat mint chocolate chip ice cream. He smiled at the familiar green ice cream in her dish.

"I can't believe it's almost nine." Spencer muttered to himself.

"What? Do you have a bed time?" she asked.

"No." he responded. He didn't understand that she was joking and took it seriously. "I was just in awe that I've spent so much time with you."

They finished eating their ice cream and Spencer began driving back to the bar for Natalie to get her car. Spencer couldn't believe the day he had with her. More often than not he would get bored around people because he never had much to talk about with them. He had interests that not a lot of people really understood and when he would talk about them the other would just stop listening because they wouldn't know what he was talking about. He found that that made it very difficult for him to make friends. She was sort of different though. She listened, even though she never seemed to stop talking. But that made it a lot easier to talk to her.

Once there Natalie got out of the car and unlocked her Jeep again tossing in her purse. "You have a phone?" she yelled into his car.

"Yeah." he responded. "I mostly use it for work though."

"You said you travel all around right? I'm gonna need that number so I can talk to you." she said with a smile. "Unless you want to talk through pigeons. They might be easier to tame than owls. But I could be wrong. I don't have an extensive knowledge on how birds were used to communicate."

"Pigeons only work in one direction actually so trying to send me a message wound't work. I would have to send you the pigeon. A pigeon can only be trained on how to find it's home. And I'm afraid owls don't send messages. Only in the world of Harry Potter does that work. Pigeons are homing birds owls aren't." Spencer explained. "Oh, but yes." he responded. "I guess you're right." Maeve never really called him on his cell phone so this was a new thing. They only spoke on pay-phones and that one time on his cell phone in an emergency.

Natalie blinked at him after hearing the explanation on pigeons and owls but decided to just continue on with putting her number in his phone. "I am right." she reached out her hand. "Here. I'll put my number in it and you can text me or call me."

"Sure." he pulled out his cell phone from his pocket and gave it to her. After nervously fidgeting around trying to get it out in the first place.

"You do text right?" she asked. Natalie couldn't help but love his fidgeting around her. She hadn't met a man that was nervous around her in a long time. Most of the guys that tired to talk to her were way over confident and thought they were top of the food chain kind of men.

"Yes." he responded.

Natalie put her number into his phone and handed it back to him. Natalie then got into her car and turned it on and watched as Spencer pulled out from the parking lot. While he exited the parking lot Natalie wondered when she would be seeing Spencer again.

She pulled out her phone to text Patrick and tell him about it but she at the last minute decided not to. Turning on the car she squirmed around in her seat, rubbing her arms up and down like a nervous person. She hadn't really dated much since her last serious boyfriend... and not the guy with the motorcycle... He was a... phase.

She swallowed hard before pulling out. Was she really falling for this guy? A guy that knew that the US consumes 146 million cups of coffee a year? A guy who knew that the first three pancakes were considered to ward of evil? Who didn't know about Kanye West? Well. Maybe it was better that he didn't know who Kanye West was. The thing with the pigeons and the owls? He was the exact opposite of someone she had ever dated in her life.

She knew how to work guys who treated her like garbage. Stupid guys. Or... in fact guys with a motorcycle. But nice? Smart? That was a whole new ball game for her. Did she even deserve a guy like that? She pulled out of the parking lot and drove home trying not to think about it so much.

Natalie arrived home and pulled a cup of yogurt out of the fridge. She realized that she didn't go for a run today. And yesterday. Or the day before that. Shrugging her shoulders she gave up and climbed upstairs. She took off the blood stained clothing and the shoes and changed into clean clothing. She felt much more comfortable. She sat down on the bed and thought more about Spencer. Was she really falling for some smart, awkward, sarcastic-immune, skinny guy? It was simple. The answer was yes.

* * *

Spencer returned home and quickly drank some water before changing and climbing into bed. Usually he read a book or two before bed but he wasn't exactly feeling up to it. His eyelids felt like ten pounds and his back was pretty sore. Things he didn't notice until now because when he was with Natalie those things seemed to not matter.

He buried himself in the bed and pulled up the covers. Closing his eyes he remembered a lot about Natalie. He remembered her blood stained clothing, her blonde messy hair, the small amount of makeup she wore, and the smell of vanilla he supposed she used as a perfume. He wondered what her hair smelled like... probably vanilla he assumed. He couldn't help but smile slightly when thinking about her. This was all new to him. The whole spending time with a girl other than JJ or Garcia. Someone he wanted to spend all of his time with.

Without seeing it coming he fell asleep in the bed huddled around all of his covers. He hoped he could see her sooner rather than later.

Spencer walked into work the next morning with a small smile on his face. He sat down at his desk and then realized the stare he was receiving from Morgan. He tried to ignore it for some time because he knew that he was going to bug him about Natalie. "What?" he asked.

"Sol?" he asked.

"What?" he asked trying to avoid the subject as long as he could.

"That woman, well? Did you ask her out?." Morgan asked. Morgan kept trying to poke information of him like a playful interrogation. Spencer tried to ignore Morgan but Morgan continued to stare at him waiting for him to crack and give him the answer he wanted. "Fine. Fine." Morgan said. "I'll stop." he sat down at his desk still looking over to read. "I just want to know about her."

"Morgan." Reid said after thinking about Natalie for a little. "Could you do me a favor and not mention her to anyone... I mean just... Don't tell everyone everything I told you." he was feeling embarrassed about feeling nervous about it and he didn't want Morgan going around and telling everyone. Reid knew deep down he wouldn't do that but he still felt a little distrust with that sort of thing. Especially when it came to girls. "And yes, I did ask her out." Spencer said quickly.

"Reid. I won't tell anyone." Morgan responded. "So? How did it go?"

Reid smiled shyly and then said, "She said yes."

"See." Morgan got happy and loud and leaned back into his chair. "I told you!" Morgan leaned in close. "So how did it go? When are you going on a date with her?"

"We already did." Reid said. "We went right after I asked her."

"Whoa, Killer. She must be into you."

"You think so?"

"Well. I mean she got into the car right away to go spend time you." Morgan said. "What happened after? Did you get her number?"

"She put her number in my phone... yeah."

* * *

Natalie woke up in her bed late. She was working overnight so she didn't need to get up early. Natalie rolled out of bed and walked downstairs to make breakfast.

Yawning she poured a bowl of cereal and started eating it turning on the television she sat down on the bed thinking about last night. Last night with Spencer was nice. He was awkward but she kind of liked that about him. He was also kind. Completely different than her ex-boyfriend who was a "bad boy" who rode only motorcycles. It took awhile to get rid of him. Natalie finished her cereal and placed it into the sink making a mental note that she would finish the dishes later. Going to her purse she pulled out her phone as if she thought she would've gotten a call or a text from Spencer. Natalie took a breath and put the idea out of his head. Idiot. She was pining over this guy she just met. She needed to take a breather before she turned crazy.

Shoving Spencer out of her head she headed back upstairs and then into the bathroom for a shower.

Getting out of the shower she changed quickly and then sat down in the couch turning on the television. She watched the news but she was never one for watching news so she barely paid any attention to what was happening. In fact the only thing she was deeming important was Spencer. Her head tilted back and wished for him to call or text her even. Deep down she feared her wouldn't call her or keep in touch with her. But that was a trait that other guys carried. He was not lumped into that kind of group of men. Natalie got up from the couch and picked up her phone from the island... the wonder and curiosity was killing her. He called.

Her heart dropped.

It sunk actually.

Not only that but she felt... nervous. Nervous? She didn't get nervous. She never got nervous. Especially over some guy. She hit redial on his number and waiting for him to pick up on the other end.

* * *

"Wheels up in ten." Hotch announced to the group and then headed out of the office.

Spencer closed up his note pad and shoved it into his bag. He got up and walked out the room heading for his desk. He picked up his cell phone with the hope of seeing a text or a call from Natalie but he didn't. He was leaving and he thought he should tell her. He was nervous. More nervous than he imagined being. He looked through his phone and then he put up her number on the screen. Before calling he stared at the number and name on the screen. Calling was okay right? The morning after their first date? It wasn't deemed desperate was it? He forced those kind of thoughts out of his head because he knew he was being ridiculous. Spencer was leaving for a case. He should tell her. Yeah. Tell her. He touched her number and the phone dialed.

It rang and rang and rang and she didn't answer. He wished he could say that he wasn't worried but he did. Figuring she could be doing something important he put his phone back and headed out with Morgan and JJ following. Spencer couldn't help but be disappointed when she didn't answer the phone. He got so excited and got himself ready to talk to her but she failed to answer.

Behind him he heard JJ say, "So what's up with Spence and his phone today?" He already knew it was coming. Morgan was going to say something. He knew he would. As long as he didn't tell JJ _everything,_ Spencer figured it was fine but he didn't want the whole team bugging him like some pre-teen boy going on his first date. "Girlfriend?" she asked immediately intrigued.

"Morgan!" Spencer shouted. All he wanted was peace about Natalie. "And she's not my girlfriend,"

"How come you didn't say anything Spence?"

"Because she's not even my girlfriend." Spencer said getting annoyed.

"Doesn't matter. He likes her." Morgan said to JJ. "He wants her to be his girlfriend."

"Stop teasing him." JJ said back to him. "Spence, I only asked Morgan why you were so absorbed in your phone."

"Like a teenager." Morgan commented. It was like Morgan knew what he was thinking. Spencer cursed to himself and pushed Morgan and JJ out of his head, reminding himself that they just cared.

Spencer felt his phone vibrate. He pulled it from his pocket and saw that it was Natalie calling. He could have picked it up faster and he wanted to but he was afraid that Morgan was just going to make fun of him more. Feeling a cold sweat come over him he stared at the phone fore a second. _Get over it Spencer._ He told himself. So he answered the call and put the phone to his ear. "Hey." he said in the phone. They were about to get in the car but he decided to hold them up and stay outside the car.

"Sorry." she said into the phone. "I was in the shower when you called." Now he was imagining her in the shower. Why did she have to say that? Why was he imagining that? "What's up?" she asked.

"Uh...I wanted to call to tell you that I was leaving for a case. I'm heading to California." Spencer explained. "I'll probably be gone for a couple days. Maybe a week at most."

"Oh." she said into the phone. He wished he could stay. "Then I will see you when you get back, right?" she asked.

"Yeah." Spencer smiled knowing that she wanted to see him as soon as he got back. It filled him up with warmth actually.

"Hey! Prince Charming! We're going to be late!" Morgan shouted from the car.

"I'll be right there." Spencer responded.

"Am I holding you up?" she asked him through the phone.

"No, no." he said. "It's fine."

"I have work tonight. So I won't be able to answer calls but if you text me. I can get back to you when I have time if you want to talk." she told him. "Tomorrow I work night shift too." Natalie continued. He could hear her smiling through the phone.

"Okay." Spencer said. "I might take you up on that offer." he then felt the unbelievable feeling rush over him telling him not to hang up the phone. "I'll talk to you later." he said into the phone.

"Okay." she said. "Talk to you later." and then Spencer cut the call off in a hurry to get in the car. He stared at her name in her phone after putting on his seat belt.

"Sorry." he said once he was situated.

"Take your time with your girlfriend." Morgan said.

"She's not my girlfriend." Spencer responded. He felt his phone vibrate again and he looked down to it. He stared at the words on the screen. _Stay safe._

* * *

 **Thanks for reading!**

 **I'm so glad that you guys like Natalie so much! Thanks so much for the reviews!**

 **Review, favorite, or follow if you like it!**

 **Amelia**

 **P.S. sorry if you like Kanye West**


	5. Chapter 5

**Behind Every Corner**

 **Chapter 5**

 **I do not own Criminal Minds**

* * *

 _ **tannrose5-** Okay! so I've debating this over and over with myself on when I was going to make this whole thing happen with the series. Love Morgan too much to take him out so hooking it into the most recent season would kill me because I wrote Morgan into pretty much the whole story. So. I think I have decided to start this whole thing in between seasons 9 and ten. Meaning I will be writing Kate into this whole thing eventually. Last chapter I did mention Gideon but not that he died. Just that he was Spencer's old boss. _

_This would make Reid... 31._

 _I will get into Natalie's age eventually but she's going to be pretty much the same age._

* * *

 _ **SPRING**_

* * *

Spencer got back from California in four days. It was longer than usual. Which was ironic considering all he wanted to do was go home and see Natalie. Once he was home though he didn't bother asking if she would like to go somewhere because he was so tired he was afraid if he drove anywhere or went with her anywhere he would fall asleep either driving or talking. And he wasn't that experienced with dating but he was pretty sure that wasn't a thing that would be determined _good_.

On his way to work on Friday morning he texted her with the idea in mind to go somewhere. However, luck was not on his side when she told him that she had a hospital shift and she was going to be doing a surgery tomorrow that was going to take her the entire day. Spencer frowned and felt saddened by not being able to see her. He felt his phone vibrate again and he looked to see that Natalie had texted him again. "But if you're craving hospital food tonight I can see you then." He smiled when he realized she would want to spend her dinner time with him. He immediately responded, "I would love to see you." Automatically he regretted using the word... love. He cringed reading way too far into it. She responded back with a smiley face.

Spencer spent the whole day doing paper work and helping out with consults and going through case files. It didn't take long for his mind to drift over to Natalie. He didn't think much about her, mostly it was out of anticipation to go and see her tonight.

He drank through his tea and munched on chips the entire day even though he received a scolding from JJ about eating healthier. Which was annoying considering her diet consisted of Cheetos and cupcakes. When he gave her this evidence she shut up and walked away muttering something that Spencer couldn't hear. The rest of the day Morgan tried to avoid the subject of Natalie. Which was refreshing. Refreshing. Yet disappointing. Because he felt like all he wanted to do was talk about her. Which was ridiculous because when someone asked him about her he got defensive and annoyed. He was never going to win.

When it was finally time to leave. Spencer left the floor in a hurry. He was incredibly excited to get out of there and go visit Natalie at work. Smiling that he made it out of the BAU without being stopped by one of his teammates he got onto the Metro and instead of getting his car he just changed trains and went to the hospital that way.

Spencer got off at his stop and walked towards the hospital wishing that she would know he was here and just come out without him taking the time to tell her. He texted her that he was here and he stood outside to wait for her to emerge from the hospital. He would be lying if he said he wasn't nervous. But he was always nervous. He also was always worried that he would get his hopes up to see her and then be denied because of something that needed her attention.

* * *

Natalie got up for work early that morning. She was working all day. And by all day she was working from seven in the morning until ten at night. She groaned getting out of bed. She didn't want to spend a whole day cleaning up blood and vomit however that was what was going to happen. Natalie showered quickly and pulled on her scrubs. She blew dried her hair before running downstairs to grab food and then run out of her house.

Natalie drove to the hospital, shoved her stuff in the locker, and then felt her phone go off right before she put it in her pocket. She smiled seeing that Spencer was in fact home and that he wanted to see her. But then frowned realizing that she was going to be at work all day and night and she was involved in a Whipple tomorrow. She quickly texted back and then decided to ask if he would like to come meet her for dinner. When he said yes she smiled and was getting ready to count down the hours until she could see him. She told him to get here around six this evening and she would meet him outside.

Six rolled around and logging off the computer in ER, she told the other doctor that she was going to go and eat. He nodded and she walked towards the main entrance. Spencer was already outside. Coming out of the doors she saw him and let a giant smile come over her. She quickly walked over to him and pulled him into a giant hug. He hesitantly wrapped his arms around her.

Hugging wasn't exactly one of his many skills. She pulled away from him and she awkwardly stood there thinking about how much she missed him. "Sorry." he said. "I'm not great at... germs."

"Germs?" she shouted. "We have clothes on." Natalie grabbed his sleeve and pulled him so they could start walking into the hospital. "You act like I was just rolling around in the dirt out back."

"I'll eventually... get used to it." her told her.

Natalie laughed at his phobia. She was different. The complete opposite actually. She could care less about the amount of germs she could come in contact in a day. Guess it was a good thing that she worked in a hospital. "Are you excited for hospital food?" she asked him.

"Not really." he said shooting her a frown. "It's rather ironic isn't it? That hospital food isn't in fact very nutritional."

"It's practically cardboard."

They walked in the doors and made their way to the cafeteria. Spencer and Natalie went through the options and Natalie showed him all the things he could get. She promised him that she would give him her employee discount. Which he refused to take but when they got up the line she told the cashier that she was paying for him and he got the discount anyway. He already established that she was much more stubborn than he thought she would be. In fact he was guessing that he didn't see her true stubbornness yet.

They sat down at a table and ate their bland meals together. "So how long is your surgery tomorrow exactly?"

"I'm helping with a Whipple tomorrow." she stated. "It's going to take pretty long. Probably about eight hours. The surgery is at nine in the morning. We're removing the entire pancreas that's why it's so long."

Spencer nodded. "So that means I won't be able to talk to you. Or see you." There was disappointment in his voice and he knew it.

"No." she said laughing. "But maybe I can see you for dinner tomorrow." she smiled making Spencer's frown turn into a smile.

"That would be nice." he told her. Looking down at his hospital food his furrowed his brow seeing how actually disgusting it looked. "Do we have to come here though?" he asked.

She laughed at him looking down at his food. "No." she said. "We could go somewhere else."

"Okay good. Because I don't know how you eat this everyday."

"Eventually you're so hungry it doesn't matter. And if you eat it really fast you almost don't even notice how gross it is or even the fact that it doesn't taste like anything."

After eating dinner with her she walked him back out of the cafeteria. On the way out he noticed stares towards her. From men in particular. He got tense about it and bit his inner cheek. She seemed completely oblivious to it. Which was ridiculous. How could she not notice this? The fact that she was being stared at like a piece of meat everywhere she went? Once outside he turned to looked her. "I'm glad you suggested this." he said to her still raw from the men staring at her.

"I'm glad you came." she told him. "How as your case in California?"

"It was... average."

"Average?"

"Nothing... too crazy or insane. I mean all my cases are intense but this was not as... bad. It ended well. We stopped the woman before she killed anyone else. I guess it really wasn't average then." he commented. "There are far more male serial killers than there are male. Between 1800 and 2000 there were only 64 documented female serial killers out of 416. And there's evidence that at least 16% of serial killings are female. When women are the unsub there more less likely to be caught because no one suspects a women and also women more commonly use low profile ways to kill. Like poisoning. Elizabeth Bathroy of the sixteenth century was the most notorious female serial killers. It was predicted that she killed over 650 women and girls. She killed over almost 20 years. She was from Hungary and received the nickname The Blood Count-" Natalie put her finger over his lips in a shushing manner. He got the hint and stopped rambling.

Natalie smiled and removed her finger from his lips. And Spencer awkwardly grabbed her hands in his. He looked down at the ground and not at her. He felt his face heat up a little but not as much as he thought it would. "Let me know when you're done tomorrow so I can see you." he said smiling, but he was still looking to the ground. "I'm off for the weekend. Unless there's an emergency."

"I will." she said. She wanted him to kiss her but he knew he wasn't going to. And she was fine by that. "And I'm actually off Sunday."

"Good." he stated. Natalie heard her pager go off and she looked down and it giving the object a frown. He became annoyed knowing that she was going to have to go and leave him. "Go save someone." he stated glancing over to the hospital.

Natalie groaned looking up at him. She didn't want to go. Was that selfish? Natalie quickly decided, yes. "Yeah." she said sighing. While Natalie's eyes were down on the ground she noticed his gun. She never even realized that he had it on him. Guess it made sense. Where else would it be? "Whoa, suddenly you became sexier when I noticed your gun." she said smiling at him.

He looked down at her and his face got extremely red. He couldn't believe she said that. He felt awkward. Weird. And nervous. How was someone supposed to respond to that? Well, he was sure that people knew how to answer this but he had not even an idea. He nervously laughed because he didn't know what to say and then responded. "Thanks?"

Natalie broke out into a wide smile and laughed and said, "You're welcome." Natalie took in a deep breath and let it out. "I'll hopefully see you tomorrow. I have to get back."

He nodded and then took his hands back and started to walk away from her. "I'll talk to you later." he said and then she walked back towards the hospital. He watched as she left him standing on the pavement. He can't believe how red he got when she called him sexy. He felt embarrassed. It was a compliment. But a compliment he had never really received from anyone. He didn't know how to digest it. He fell for her too fast. And too hard. He thought about her hands in his. Spencer loved the feeling of them. They were soft. Warm. Not just warm. But clammy. Even though she had clammy hands he couldn't help but want to hold them forever.

* * *

Natalie returned to work despite everything in her heart that was telling her to stay just a little bit longer with Spencer. It was a thought she had often that came to mind, her annoyance of her clammy hands. Her clammy hands were probably the thing she hated the most. Natalie was already worrying that he thought it was gross. She was paged again while she was already waking at a quickened pace to the Emergency Room. There she met with a nurse who told her to go into Trauma Room 1. Natalie ran in seeing Patrick on the table holding pressure to his nose. "What the hell?" she said entering the room. "You know trauma rooms are for trauma not nose bleeds."

Patrick turned to face her. The ER doctor nodded his head and left out the door she came in and was never seen again. "I was attacked." he stated.

"By who?" Natalie asked. "And this is why I was paged here twice?" She was kind of annoyed about it. Here she was running to the ER thinking that there had been some horrific accident but in fact it was just Patrick and his bloody nose! "And why the hell did you call me?"

"We're each others contact person remember?"

"It's not like you're dying." she said rolling her eyes. "You got what? Punched in the face?"

"Excellent observation. What gave it away? My bloody nose?"

"Well who punched you?"

"Apparently Nurse Bridget has a boyfriend." Patrick felt Natalie's eyes on him already giving him a disapproving look. "I didn't know, I swear. I don't have sex with taken women."

"I left him for this!" she muttered to herself.

"Him?" Patrick said looking over to her. "What are you talking about? Were you with a patient?"

"That guy who drove me home came and... we had dinner."

"Well, how the hell was I supposed to know you were on a booty call!"

"It's wasn't a booty call." she said crossing her arms. "We had dinner."

A booty call with Spencer Reid? It was hard enough to get him to hold her hands. Hell. They didn't even come close to kissing yet. And she wanted him to kiss her so badly.

"Whatever." Patrick rolled his eyes into that one. "I'm sorry I messed up your evening with your knight in shining armor." Patrick took away the cloth he had at his nose. He looked down at the blood and shook his head in anger. "Does this look broken to you?" he asked pointing to his blood crusted nose.

"What the hell was that doctor here for then?!"

"He was making sure I didn't have a concussion. I hit my head pretty hard when I fell to the ground." This guy must have been pretty big to take Patrick down in one swing.

"No." she told him. "It looks fine." Natalie walked out the room mumbling something like "I'm going to hit your head pretty hard." and went back in the ER annoyed more than ever.

The entire rest of the night until her shift ended she spent in the ER. There were some stitches here and there. But the best part was when this drunk came in looking for his lost parrot. Something she never thought she would see, well a drunk person she saw often but, one looking for parrot was new.

But anyway, Natalie got the awesome job of taking blood from the guy and while doing so he only grabbed her ass three times. It took some pretty brute force not to punch him in the face. The third time he slapped her ass she wagged her finger and said, "Touch my ass one more time and you're going to wishing you didn't have a hand." She was in no mood to deal with any of this. And finally when her shift was over she decided she needed ice cream to fix the night she had.

* * *

Spencer woke up the next morning after going to sleep before Natalie got off work, something he kind of regretted. But he was so tired. It was almost eight and he remembered that she had told him that the Whipple was at nine. He reached for his phone really fast and looked at it with narrowed eyes from the brightness. She had texted him that the surgery got pushed up earlier due to another surgery being planned for later. She had said this about an hour and half ago. Meaning. She was already in surgery probably. Frowning Spencer rolled over onto his side and texted her back asking her to tell him when she was done.

He knew it wouldn't be anytime soon. She said it could last nearly eight hours. With nothing else to do he got up from bed and sat down on his couch and began to read.

The eight hours passed. And then nine. Ten. Eleven. And now it made it to twelve hours without hearing from her. He started to get anxious. Spencer got up from his couch and made another mug of tea and pulled out yet another book. Is this what reading was going to be like when waiting for her? Painful? Boring? Why was it that the silence killed him? Before he enjoyed silence. And now Natalie came into his life talking about every chance she had and he felt like the whole world was quiet.

Finally an hour later he received a message. "Sorry. The Whipple ended and then there was some huge car pile up and I had to do one surgery quick and then I got pulled into another one. It was a mess." Spencer saw the time. Eight P.M.

"It's okay. There's still tomorrow." he texted back.

Around three in the morning he was greeted with the awful sound that was his phone. No. Why? Why? He didn't even look at it. He hoisted himself out of bed, changed, and then headed out of his apartment building. Only then looking to his phone to read the text from Garcia. The entire drive to the BAU had him in a frown. He had said _there was always tomorrow_. Now there was no tomorrow. He wasn't going to be able to see her. Trying not to get too upset or disappointed he grabbed a coffee from a drive thru to keep himself awake on the drive to work.

Spencer arrived at work and stumbled sleepily into the conference room already containing most of the team. Everyone but Garcia and JJ. Eventually they came in and JJ sat down while Garcia began to present the case. He wasn't really listening. In fact that was an understatement. He wasn't listening at all. He figured he could catch himself up later. While they spoke his fingers danced around the text message conversation. He didn't want to text her that he was leaving yet because that would make it real.

* * *

The entire time Spencer was on the job he only wanted to think about Natalie. She was like a parasite. A beautiful one. But a parasite Spencer reminded himself. Sucking out all of his concentration and infecting him with thoughts about her.

He was on the other side of the country and yet he would look to the door like she was going to walk in. He missed her. He looked up to their team who was talking about the case but he was so wrapped up in his own thoughts that he couldn't hear any voices. Since he met her he spent all of his free time with her. It had been a three weeks two days and three hours but he hadn't kissed her yet. He was pretty nervous about the whole thing if he would tell the truth. "Spencer." he heard Hotch yell at him. He snapped back and stared at him and then looked to his team.

"Sorry." he said. "I have this horrible headache." He lied but he couldn't exactly say "sorry I was thinking about this girl that has nothing to do with this case whatsoever and I think I'm going insane."

"I asked if you had an idea about these symbols." Hotch said pointing to the symbols written in blood on the victims. Hotch stared at him as if he knew what Spencer was thinking about.

"It's a religious symbol belonging to Sikhism. It's technically a newer religion founded in the 15th century. It follows gurus actually and the people who follow the religion usually strive for social justice, equality, and world peace. They're very selfless and believe they have to make the most of their lives because their very birth is a gift. Worst case scenario the person who's killing could go for ten murders because the religion follows ten gurus. The person who is doing this must truly believe that killing these people are for social justice and equality so perhaps these people have crime records or got away with some things that others did not." Spencer explained. "The fact that the unsub is killing men and women makes sense too because in the religion men and women are considered equals."

"Where do people who follow worship? Would there be a place around town?" Rossi asked.

"Temples." he responded. "Considering the population there should be a couple of temples for people to worship." Spencer explained. "Actually these people can be confused with people who follow Islam because of the fact that they wear turbans. However they are different religions. I wouldn't doubt the the people in the United States, most of them anyway, probably don't even know this religion exists."

"The temple the unsub goes to is probably in the area of the murders." JJ added. "They would be closer to God that way."

"That's true. It's also a belief that the one true liberation or freedom is through death and when you meet God. The unsub would rather have them close to the temple."

"I'll call Garcia and ask her to narrow it down." Hotch said taking out his cell phone.

Spencer tapped the pencil up and down on the desk. Morgan caught his attention. Morgan was smiling at him with a suspicious grin. "You were thinking about that girl weren't you?" he asked.

"Leave him alone." JJ said sternly. "And he'll talk about her when he wants to." JJ responded.

Spencer was kind of annoyed by the fact that these too were arguing back and forth about him. Why did they think his life was so interesting? Eventually they stopped teasing him after he ignored them for awhile.

"Garcia's got it." Hotch said. "Reid and JJ with me." he said.

"Morgan and Rossi, talk with Garcia and try to find out the exact reason why the unsub is killing these people." Hotch said on the way out. "Try and see if you can figure out the type of people he's going to kill next. Maybe each person has a connection which each of the gurus."

Before getting back in the car after taking a look and talking with people at the temple. Who were very helpful and nice to talk to. A lot of times when someone was killing claiming it for religion the people they would ask questions would get really defensive and sometimes refuse to answer they. As if they themselves were the ones being interrogated. They narrowed it down to a few people that just started worshipping there. JJ was talking with a woman still inside and Hotch and Reid walked back out to the car. "Reid." he heard Hotch say. Oh no. Please no. What?

"Yes?"

"I've heard that you have someone new in your life now and I just want to make it clear. When we're at work we're here to think about the case and nothing else." he said.

"I, uh, I'm sorry." Reid said not having anything else to say.

"We've had two group conversations now that you haven't been paying attention to." Hotch told him. "Reid, you may not know it but we need you in on these conversations. You're an important part of this team."

"I'm sorry, Hotch, I am trying to get her out of my head... it's just kind of hard."

"Well try harder." Hotch commanded and JJ came out of the temple. All three of them got into the car and headed back. Great. Now Hotch knew.

* * *

 **Thanks for the reviews, favorites, and follows!**

 **I'm so glad you like my story!**

 **I just wanted to make something clear. I'm sorry if I didn't do the religion justice or I got something incorrect I researched it on my own and that's the information I got. Sorry if I did something to upset you. This is really the only chapter with religion in it with a case.** **I would have taken the whole thing out or made up my own religion if I thought I was doing something harmful. I just did it for the purpose of the case and that was it. People have used religion before on the television show.**

 **Amelia**


	6. Chapter 6

**Behind Every Corner**

 **Chapter 6**

 **I do not own Criminal Minds**

* * *

 ** _SPRING_**

* * *

Darkness fell quickly and no sooner was it three in the morning when Spencer, Hotch, and JJ returned to the hotel room after doing more research at the police station. They would continue in the morning. Or. Later in the morning.

Spencer shoved his shoes off and laid down on the bed without taking off any of his clothes. Morgan was asleep in the other bed so he tried to be quiet. Spencer pulled out his cell phone and saw that he received three text messages. He didn't even hear it go off. All three were from Natalie. She was pretty much the only person that texted him anyway. "You're busy but I wanted to say goodnight." was the first, she texted it at ten when she was heading to work or when she got to work. "Don't work yourself to death." was the next one and he couldn't help but smile. "See you when you get back." was her last one. He decided to reply to her text messages but wondered what to say to her. About five times he wrote something and then erased it thinking that no matter what he said it wasn't going to be good enough. Until he finally settled on. "Can't wait to see you. And before you say anything, I am eating." Once he hit send he wondered how fast she was going to respond.

Before he fell asleep he felt his phone vibrate. He looked at the message and smiled. "Catch the bad guy. Also. Go to sleep."

He wanted to respond to her and keep a conversation however he also wanted to go to sleep. He typed "Goodnight" and then once the message sent he turned off his phone and put it on the side table. He quickly fell asleep on the comfy bed. The last thing he thought about was Natalie.

A few hours later, about three, he got up to the sound of his alarm. He rubbed his eyes and turned it off and pulled himself with all the strength he had out of bed. He changed into fresh clothing, fixed his hair, and walked out of his hotel room after grabbing his phone and bag. Everyone eventually came downstairs and they all hit up a coffee shop on the way into the station already knowing just how bad the coffee was going to be at the station. He checked his phone for messages but there wasn't any. God, he wished he was home. Before heading into the station he texted her three times since he wasn't sure when he would be able to again. He was being watched closely now that Hotch made it apparent that he was not tolerating the grand whole two times he drifted off. Last time he drifted off was when he was shooting up his veins and that was how many years ago. Spencer settled on the fact that Hotch perhaps only was concerned because of that. That in Hotch's eyes Natalie was much like the drug that he used back then. Letting a breath out Spencer realized that he wasn't wrong...

* * *

Natalie was called into emergency surgery the moment she sent her "goodnight" text to Spencer. She smiled shoving the phone back in her pocket and then headed to surgery. "What is it?" she asked as she scrubbed her hands when seeing Dr. Ridley Lee, head of cardio, walk into the small room.

"Aortic aneurysm." she said to her as she scrubbed vigorously. "I was suggested to call Stinewell in but I heard you were here already." They commonly worked together because cardio surgeries would a lot of times be urgent and she liked Lee and Lee liked her. If she had to pick a doctor to work with for the rest of her life it would be her. She got stuff done not to mention she liked small talk during the surgeries... when the surgery was under control. Some surgeons hated speaking. And she was all about speaking. It made her relax more and handle the stress better. Natalie nodded her head and followed Lee in the OR. They were gloved and dressed as quickly as possible and then without anymore words Lee cut into the woman's chest.

She was in surgery for the next five hours and came out of the room when the clock turned half past eight in the morning. She was supposed to be off three and a half hours ago. Once she pulled her lab coat off of the hook she put it on and reached for her phone in her pocket.

She turned it back on and let the texts come in. Four texts were from Spencer. She opened them up and read them. The first, "Goodnight" sent moments after she told him to go to sleep. The second text read, "Good morning, get some sleep." The third, "I suppose you're busy. But we might be close to finishing the case." and the fourth read, "Can't wait to see you. Be home soon."

She smiled and stared at her phone and then typed back. "Finally going home now." and then sent the message.

Natalie walked to the locker room and did her usual change and hurriedly walked out of the hospital in the hope that she wouldn't be stopped by anyone and she could finally go home.

She got home without being stopped and fell into her bed and before falling asleep she looked at her phone and saw two texts from Spencer. "Eat." was the first and the second was "Please." She tried to think of the last time she ate but couldn't remember. She groaned realizing that she was pretty hungry. She blamed Spencer for it since he was the one that brought up food.

She didn't have the energy to get back up for it though. And in the end the soreness of her muscles won the battle. She typed back. "Too tired. I'll eat later." and then fell asleep directly after sending.

* * *

After arresting the unsub and putting him in jail he returned to the hotel packed up his things and they all headed to the airplane to finally go home. He was excited to go home because that meant he could see Natalie. Theses past couple cases were fast ones. And he wondered how awful it was going to feel when he was gone for almost a week or longer.

They boarded the plane and it was nice to know that everyone was too tired to ask him questions about Natalie. Soon he was drifting off too and the long plane ride was actually soothing. He fell asleep to the thought of Natalie. The thought about seeing her again was a magical thing that brought him pure joy.

He woke up to the feeling of the plane landing on the strip. He stirred and scratched his head pulling himself up. His immediate thought was to go his phone. He saw two texts the first about how she wasn't going to eat. He wasn't surprised. And the second read, "Hope you're home soon."

He texted back, "Home." and then got off the plane following his team into cars and then returning to the BAU.

Spencer placed his extra pens and papers he brought with him on the case back on his desk, received paperwork from Hotch, threw it in his bag and then left the floor without a word. All the way down to the bus stop that took him to the metro station to get home. He was getting out of here as quickly as possible so he could go and see her.

Getting on the train he checked his phone for a text. The text read, "Good. Would you want to have lunch with me?" he smiled at the text and the term "butterflies" came to mind when he wanted to describe the feeling in his stomach. It made him feel like some love sick teenager and he hadn't yet established if that was a good thing or a bad thing. He replied. "Yes." Even though he was exhausted, he wanted to see her more than sleep.

"Where do you want to meet?" she asked.

He thought about it for awhile thinking of places to go. He picked the diner last time so he decided to tell her, "You pick."

"Let's go to a place near the hospital. It's called Joe's. You like sandwiches right?"

"Sounds good." he responded. "See you there soon." he asked.

"Perfect."

Spencer got off the train got into his car and drove towards the hospital on the lookout for the sandwich place. And he found it only by seeing her red jeep in the parking lot. He parked next to her noticing that she was in the car waiting for him. He watched her get out of the car. He concluded that she must have showered because her hair was down, wavy, and she was wearing a thin layer of makeup. She looked pretty. But she looked pretty all the time.

"There you are." she said as he got out the car.

"I drove as fast as I could." he said with a laugh.

"Come on! I didn't eat in like a day."

"I told you to eat." he said sternly with disapproval.

"Did you eat when I told you to?" she asked. "When was the last time _you_ ate?"

"Uh. Maybe I should have just not said anything." he said as they walked into the small deli. In fact he couldn't remember the last time he ate food that was not dipped in grease.

After ordering their sandwiches they sat down at a table and began eating. Both of them were too hungry to even talk with one another but after they finished eating. Spencer couldn't help but look at her. Taking a good look at her he admired her blonde hair, with highlights no doubt, she didn't wear a lot of makeup but he was pretty sure she didn't need it, she had bright joyful blue eyes, and his favorite thing about her didn't have even anything to do about her looks. It was the fact that she wasn't like any other girl. She wasn't a girl that cared much about the way she looked, dressed, or even about being polite. She was herself. Always.

"What?" she asked breaking the trance that he was in.

"Sorry. Nothing." he quickly said.

"Spencer Reid were you staring into my eyes?" she asked teasing him. "Are you already falling in love with me?"

"What?" he asked. "No?" Panic. Sheer panic and terror filled his entire body.

"Oh so you don't like me?"

"No that's not what I-I-I meant..." He felt himself getting nervous, sweating, and getting worried about saying anything more and screwing this whole thing up. Him and his dumb mouth. Did he say something wrong? What if he did?

"Then what did you mean?" she asked taking a sip of her iced tea. She had an evil grin on her face. Spencer knew she was enjoying this whole thing. Watching him fidget around. Because she knew that he was freaking out underneath his skin.

Spencer laughed letting himself sink into the entertainment he seemed to supply for her. "I...I'm not good at this…" he said.

"Good at what?"

"I like you okay?" he said. "I'm just not good at this… and I don't want to screw it up."

"You won't screw it up." she told him.

"Yes I will. I can't stop thinking about you. Honestly. I've never been more confused… I have but... I don't know this is different and I'm…"

"I promise I'm not scary." she told him. Natalie sometimes felt like he was out of romance movie or something. The words that came out sometimes were always a surprise. Even though most of the time he was a nervous wreck around her he always eventually said something cute and sweet. He had gotten a whole lot less nervous. However when she thought back to what he was like when they first met, he practically acted as though she was a bomb ticking down to the last second. He was beginning to get much more comfortable.

Spencer didn't say anything to her about Maeve yet. He wanted to tell her about Maeve but bringing up that whole thing again was... gonna take some time. He didn't really want to bring up his past girlfriends stalker here anyway. It wasn't really a lunch time topic. "When do you have work next?" he asked. He was praying for an answer like "never".

"I have a shift tonight. I'll be in the ICU." she told him. "It's only a four hour shift. I'm covering for someone." she took another sip of her iced tea "I start at nine."

Spencer looked at his watch noticing it was around one o'clock. She started and nine and even though he was tired he wanted to see her the entire duration of that time. "What are you doing after this?"

"Depends." she said with a smile. "What are you doing?"

"Anything you want."

"Hmmm." she thought about it for a little while and then opened her mouth again. "How do you feel about mini-golf?"

"Mini-golf." he restated. He laughed a little bit at the subject. "I don't think I've ever played." he told her.

"I'm sorry. Did you just say you never played mini-golf?"

"Well. I didn't really have parents that were eager to take me to play mini golf. I graduated high school when I was twelve, I didn't have friends...I was twelve in high school what eighteen year old would want to hang out with me? Then I went to college. Again who would want to hang out with me?" he explained.

"Alright. Let's go." she said getting up from the table. "You need to play mini golf."

"Okay." he said getting up and following her out.

"Get in my car. I'll bring you back later."

They climbed into her red jeep and she pulled her car out of the parking lot. She drove all the way to the mini golf coarse she had in mind. Spencer sat in the passenger seat looking around her car. It was clean and yet when he looked in the back of the car she had it was mess. He smiled thinking that he correctly figured that her car would be a mess.

She was a fast driver. Faster than he thought she would be. She was going maybe fifteen over the limit. He felt himself tense up in the seat next to Natalie as she drove passing most of the cars that were on the road with them. He didn't say anything. She seemed fine driving this fast even though he was in some dumbfounded shock about the whole thing he just went along with it. She was like a woman version of Hotch when he was in a hurry. Hotch's driving was always something the team discussed when he wasn't around. Most of the discussion was about techniques on holding on so they didn't fly across the back seat. Or sometimes just sharing stories. Of course no one ever said something to him. Yeah. Like that would be a good idea.

She pulled into the parking lot and they got out of the car. They went on the course and started to play. Reid already knew how to use geometry to win. The course was all but angles and physics. On the first hole he got a hole in one. "I thought you have never done this before." she said watching his ball sink into the plastic hole in the ground.

"All it is looking at the angles and applying the correct amount of force to the ball for it to hit off at the exact spot to make it into the hole." he explained. "I should have went mini golfing before actually. It seems fun. Have you played at this course before?" Natalie stared at him for a second or two letting the whole thing really sink in.

"Do you take the fun out of everything?" she asked not taking her gaze off of him.

"Well. I guess for other people, yes, but for me measuring the angles and testing myself is pretty fun."

She sighed, frowning. "Since you're having fun… we can conclude that you like mini golfing."

"Are there maybe lists that categorize courses by difficulty?" he asked. "Wouldn't it be fun to travel to the different courses to see how your skill compares?" He was getting way too excited about something as little as mini golf. "There's actually competitions in mini golf like there are for regular golf."

"You should enter." she told him. "Let's quit our jobs and instead you can win all of the mini golf competitions. We could be rich."

"I don't think they give out as much money as the regular golf matches."

They played three more holes and that was when Spencer got upset that he missed another hole in one and ended up with two strokes instead of one. He was silently mad at himself, he wasn't being up front about his disappointment, but she saw the frustration in his face. "Stop being a cry baby." she told him.

"I'm not a cry baby." he argued. "I'm just disappointed I broke my streak."

"So you're a sore loser then?" she joked.

"I don't like losing...no." he responded. "I wouldn't necessarily call me a sore loser though."

"Oh. And why is that?" she asked.

"I don't like losing because I know I can win. By using my head I can figure out the puzzles. So when I don't do my best I don't like it. A sore loser is someone that doesn't like losing because other people win. I should have done better that's why I'm mad."

"Spence. It's mini-golf." she said rolling her eyes. "Besides, that's just the nerd version of a sore loser." she said sticking out her tongue. "So you aren't go to be mad if I somehow win?"

"I'm a nerd now too?" he asked with a laugh. "And you can't. It's impossible. I don't lose."

"You're really going to fight me on whether you're a nerd or not?" she asked. "When you just told me that you're using physics to beat me at mini-golf?" she said taking another stroke. "Oh. And you're a big talker there Dr. Reid... just you wait... I'm gonna find something that I can beat you at."

"You could probably beat me at anything physical. Running, climbing, really anything..."

"You work for the FBI! Shouldn't you be able to run fast?"

"They make exceptions for myself and the tech analyst. She's not even in the field and I'm just really bad at anything physical."

"Do you like hiking?"

"I probably won't." he said. "But I wouldn't be opposed to trying."

They finished their round of golf and of course he won by a long shot. After they got soft pretzels, sodas, and candy. They sat in her car for the next hour. The entire hour Spencer told her about cases he had that he thought were interesting. And he was happy because she thought they were pretty interesting too.

After talking for awhile they agreed to go have a small dinner at some health food joint. They both got salads considering they just had so much junk food after mini gold. Spencer then realized how tired he was. He was starting to feel awful and he was worried that he was going to fall asleep in front of her and hoped he wouldn't fall asleep while driving home.

"You said you didn't have a lot of friends." she brought up.

Spencer looked up and bit the inside of his cheek. "I had no friends actually." he said. "Kids my age thought I was weird and they didn't understand anything I was talking about. I didn't want to play soccer like everyone else did. I'm terrible at sports or anything similar. The kids I went to school with thought I was a freak."

"Well they don't know what they're missing." she said trying to cheer him up.

"I'm over it now. But, it was hard. I didn't have a lot growing up." he said. "My home life wasn't spectacular and my time at school was a great time to learn but I was constantly bullied and teased." he set down the fork he forgot he had in his hand. "You were probably popular right?" he asked. He had already decided in his mind that she was popular.

"I wouldn't say...popular." she said quietly.

"What did you do in high school? Sports?"

"I was a swimmer….and a cheerleader." She wasn't about to lie to him so she just let it out and got it over with.

"You're kidding! You were a cheerleader?" he asked surprised, sure he thought she was one of the popular kids in high school but he never thought of her as cheerleader. She flinched at the high pitch in his voice being so surprised to find out that she used to wield pom-poms. "So then you practically ruled the school?" he asked.

She rolled her eyes hearing the terms he used. "I had a few good friends. I didn't see the point in having a lot of friends. Even now I only really have one close friend and maybe two others."

"Sounds to me like you were popular." he said shrugging his shoulders. The thought finally came into his head. "Oh my god you were the queen bee weren't you?"

"Queen bee?" she asked, saying the title like she was tasting garbage.

"Yeah, look at you, you're pretty, you were a cheerleader, smart, fun to be around..." he stopped himself when he heard all the compliments coming out of his mouth at once. She smiled at him when she heard all of his compliments. She had no idea he had already thought of these ways to describe her. "I grew up in a public school already understanding what traits people flocked towards more. Some girls thought they were amazing and above everyone else, even though they were awful people... they were feared. But there were girls that people just loved to be around... like you." he said. "Unfortunately those are girls that thought it was funny to pick on me. So everyone laughed because they didn't want to be next." Natalie didn't know a lot about Spencer's time in high school but she knew he didn't have it easy. "One time..." he started to say. "There was this girl. Probably the prettiest girl in school." he told her. "She pretended she liked me but... she blindfolded me, they tied me to a goal post, and then stripped me down. They all laughed. The whole football team." Spencer didn't say anything more about it but then asked, "Where you the prettiest girl in school?"

Natalie wasn't sure what to say. She thought back to high school and did in deed cringe at some of her decisions but she never did anything like that. When she thought about the phrase, "prettiest girl in school", she wasn't really sure what to say. She never thought of herself in that way... she wasn't obsessed with herself. "Uh." she mumbled not really sure what to give him as an answer. She was still trying to recover from the horrible story he just told her. "I never did anything like that..." she mumbled. She knew he wasn't asking if she was literally the prettiest girl in school he was wondering if she was a mean girl.

It was quiet for a little bit until Spencer's mood suddenly changed. That wasn't the only thing he changed. He changed the subject. "When's your birthday?" he asked out of the blue.

"Oh." she frowned. "I'm not one to celebrate much but it's June 14th."

Spencer dropped it then because he accidentally started to analyze it. He tried to not profile around her and be normal and let her tell him about herself. But he thought that perhaps she had a bad experience when she was younger on a birthday. Or maybe she didn't like being the center of attention. He wanted her to be the center of his attention and he figured she was going to hate it.

"That's soon." he responded.

"Yes." she said still frowning.

"I'm going to get you a gift." he told her.

"I don't think you're supposed to announce it. Now I won't be surprised."

"I'm actually going to find you the perfect gift."

"The perfect gift?" she laughed.

"That is correct."

"And how exactly are you going to get me a perfect gift."

"I'll figure it out."

* * *

 **Thanks for the reviews, follows, and favorites and liking my story so far!**

 **Amelia**


	7. Chapter 7

**Behind Every Corner**

 **Chapter 7**

 **I do not own Criminal Minds**

 **Woohooo. We moved onto Summer! Summer is going to be a big season for their relationship and I can't wait to share it with you!**

 **Thanks so much for the great reviews! It means a lot! And I love seeing people returning to comment on my chapters! ITS SO NICE. I go back to school soon so updates are not going to be as constant as they are now. I will try very hard to make sure there is at least an update a week. And during my breaks I will try and edit a ton of chapters that way there isn't so much work involved when I want to update!**

* * *

 _ **SUMMER**_

The biggest risk is not taking any risk… In a world that is changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks. -Mark Zuckerberg

* * *

Spencer walked downstairs to the basement. It was dark, musty, and humid. Above all it smelled disgusting. He felt a film coat his entire body once he entered the room and even felt sweat dripped down his back and face. Hotch followed close behind and Morgan followed closely behind. He bit the inner corner of his mouth holding his gun out ready for anything that came their way. The sweat he felt dripping down his back, his legs, his forehead all started to really irritate him and he wanted to get out of this place because not only was the dampness of his clothes a problem but the whole situation made his skin crawl. He wanted out of the hellish place. Wait. Where was he even? Why didn't he remember? He turned around to face Hotch and Morgan but they were both gone. Gone? What? They were just here a minute ago. Spencer looked back to the way he was walking. But then back behind him again. "Guys?" he whispered. Were they taken? He didn't hear a struggle... Perhaps a team of people? That had to be it.

There was no answer. He gritted his teeth and continued on. Slowly walking down the hall. He turned the corner seeing someone tied up to a chair, head dropping down, blood everywhere, and clothes torn. Spencer hurried to them but stopped cold in his tracks. Feeling his mouth go dry. The room spun around fast and he fell to his knees. "No." he mumbled.

He looked up to the face of the woman from the ground and almost thought he was going to vomit and burst into tears. He started breathing heavily. Panic attack? It must be a panic attack... He tried to coach himself through what someone should do when they start to have one but nothing seemed to work.

He fell back and scurried away from the body in front of him. The black hair that she had before when he walked in turned blonde. And the eyes when he first glanced at her face went from dark brown to the light blue that was so familiar.

"No!" he shouted.

He shot up in bed doused in a cold sweat. The sheets were damp. The comforter was damp and his body felt hot and on fire. He stumbled out of bed, almost falling out of the bed actually, and he no doubt looked in a drunken state as he pulled of his shirt that might has well have been glued to his body. He looked at himself in the mirror. He was breathing heavy, he felt heavy, and he bent down to splash cold water on his face. Spencer sat down on the floor trying those breathing exercises and leaned himself up against his tub. He stayed on the cool ground for awhile. He didn't have a cold sweat like that in a very long time. Spencer pulled himself up off the ground and headed back into the bedroom. He pulled his phone off the side table and checked it. It was four in the morning. For sure she was asleep. He reread the text messages from the last time they talked just as a confirmation in case he was going crazy. She was fine. He let out a breath of air and closed his eyes running his hands through his wet hair.

He needed to shower. Showering would be good.

After getting the sticky sweat off of him he decided to sleep the last couple hours he had to himself on the couch considering his whole bed was wet with sweat. He'd wash it later. Spencer laid himself back on the couch trying to get the whole nightmare out of his head. Every time he shut his eyes though he couldn't help but see those imagines come back and haunt him. He moved around on the couch trying to find a comfortable position. He sinked into the couch more, his eyes were wide open, as he tried to find something else to think about. Anything else. He turned on the television and mindlessly stared at it without being able to fall asleep. He accepted with open arms that he wasn't going to get back to sleep.

About three hours later, three episodes of some crime show, Spencer got up and got ready to go to work like usual. He took the metro in and spent the day doing paperwork. He still felt a little... off from the dream this morning so he didn't do much talking. Since he wasn't doing much talking this gave him glances from Morgan and JJ. Who he figured were both wondering why on Earth he wasn't spewing random facts. He just couldn't.

It had been close to a week after their mini-golfing adventure. Spencer mentally kicked himself when he got home from it because he remembered reading or at least hearing about how guys let the girl win sometimes where as he just completely demolished her on the coarse. He shrugged his shoulders and tried not to worry about it too much because for one thing she didn't seem upset and for another she didn't seem like the type of girl that would want a guy to let her win. Spencer sat down on his couch and threw the thoughts away and quickly dozed off once he got himself comfortable. Coming from work directly to hang out with Natalie was in fact exhausting.

On the next Thursday night they both found themselves with free time for each other. Taking the advantage Natalie had dragged him to the mall with her. Where she browsed clothing, make-up, and purses. She ended up buying a new purse. Spencer found it funny because she was looking through all of these things and yet Spencer had seen her at most twice when she wasn't wearing scrubs, she barely wore make-up the way it is, and he only ever saw her with one purse. But he guessed that was why she was buying a new purse. After roaming around the mall they decided to eat in the food court and opted for pizza.

It was close to seven thirty when Spencer and her picked up coffee and then left the mall. They walked out and got back into Natalie's car. She was becoming more and more important to him the more he spend time with her. He wanted to spend all of this time with her. But it was starting to freak him out a little. Him and his team didn't really have the best luck in safety. What with Hotch's wife dying, Will was strapped to a bomb, Blake was kidnapped, and just a little while ago he was shot in the neck... Something he never mentioned to her because he didn't want her to worry. Furthermore the cases were starting to get to him. Now when seeing women or wives or even girlfriends he would squirm in his seat because he was already doing nothing but thinking about Natalie. Putting crime scene photos and Natalie together at the same time wasn't exactly healthy. Before he didn't even know what Maeve looked like so it wasn't as terrifying. But now. It was way different. That nightmare about her being murdered, which was something he talked about with no one, was still affecting him even thought he didn't want to admit to himself. Not even her. Hell she didn't even know he got nightmares sometimes.

The car ride was silent for the most part which gave Spencer the time to think about all of this. A couple minutes away from his place she opened her mouth and asked, "Are you alright? You seem...sad?" she tried to place what was bothering him but she couldn't figure it out. It had been on her mind all night. He barely spoke. She didn't learn one fact all day actually. "Did I do something?" she asked after receiving no immediate response.

"What?" he looked over to her surprised by her question and feeling the guilt boil in his stomach. He hoped he hadn't made he feel like that all night. "No, no. It's been a hard week at work that's all." he lied. He lied straight to her face but he didn't want to talk about how he had nightmares.

"Are you sure?" she asked again. "You've been weird all night."

"No. Everything is fine. We're fine." he stated. She eyed him still not convinced with the story he put up but gave up considering he was sticking to it. She wasn't going to get any answer out of him. Even though she wanted nothing more than for him to talk to her. She parked her car outside his building and they were now at the part neither of them wanted to do.

"I don't want to say goodbye." Spencer mumbled. "I have work tomorrow." he stated. "There will probably be another case." he frowned thinking about leaving again.

"What time do you have to be there?" she asked.

"Nine." he told her.

"I'll still be sleeping." she said. "But let me know where you're going."

He nodded his head reconsidering if he should mention the dream he had but he decided against it and kept his mouth shut. She didn't need to be bothered with that.

For a minute he thought about how she wanted to know about his day to day life. He never had to check in with people or anyone for that matter even when he was still a kid back in Las Vegas. His mother knew he would be fine on his own. "I will." he responded.

They sat there awkwardly in the car for a moment. He then figured out that she wanted him to kiss her. He didn't feel right about it and furthermore he felt a little queasy when thinking about it. He didn't really know what to do... he wanted to kiss her he really did but he also was too nervous to do so.

She nodded her head. Natalie had figured out that he was afraid to make a move. She leaned up and kiss him on the cheek. Her lips were soft and after she moved them away from him he wanted her to kiss him again.

"Stay safe." she said. Spencer again felt at peace. Someone wanted him to be safe. It made him feel warm inside a sensation he didn't get often. He thought about what would happen if he didn't stay safe. Would she miss him? If she did it felt amazing to know that someone was out there besides his team and his mom who would miss him. He got out of the car and started walking towards the doors. He turned and watched her wave to him as she pulled out in the street.

* * *

Once he was inside he fell asleep in a matter of minutes after setting his alarm.

Spencer's alarm started to go off and her groggily shut it off and rolled out of bed. He was still wary of what she might think of him once she learned more and more about him. His old drug habit was stressing him out. What would she think of him? She knew him as smart and yet the whole drug habit was a complete 360 turn. Would she be disappointed in him? What if she didn't understand. Like usual he worried about things more than he should.

Spencer changed after showering really quick and left his apartment after locking it. He took the metro to work like usual except it didn't feel like usual. Everything was sort of different now that he had met Natalie.

At his spot he got off the metro and walked onto the platform. He started heading to his building. He was worried about what Morgan was going to say to him. He didn't really want to talk about her but at the same time that's all he wanted to do. He wanted to boast about her to everyone he knew. As if he caught the prize winning fish in the sea. He laughed at himself for the joke. The "there are plenty fish in the sea" phrase seemed pretty stupid if he thought about it. He only wanted one fish. Why should he care about all the other fish in the metaphorical sea?

He walked into the building and got into the elevator. Pushing the button for his floor. Once there he walked out and through the doors and finally set his things down to sit at his desk. Morgan was here already. And once Morgan saw him he was already planning on making a joke. Spencer could see the wheels turning in his brain figuring out some comment to make about the fact that he liked someone. Of course he knew Morgan wasn't doing it to be mean or cruel just to play around with him and get him to talk about her. Spencer looked up to Hotch's office seeing that there was someone in there. Number three. They were still trying to replace the position left by Blake. At this point Spencer wondered if Hotch was ever going to find someone. Might as well pretend the open position didn't exist.

"How's my Prince Charming?" Morgan asked. He had received many nicknames over the years. The new one, Prince Charming, was a common one Morgan used when he wanted to talk about Natalie. He still fought trying not to talk about her so much. Spencer thought about how to respond to the question. On one hand he could tell him the truth but on the other he didn't have to say anything.

"Fine." Spencer said giving up.

"And did you see her lately?" Morgan asked.

"We went on a date… A couple actually" Spencer told him. Morgan smiled looking at him. Like a proud older brother that finally got the younger to talk to a girl.

Morgan got up from the desk, came over and leaned on the side of his. "Listen, pretty boy, I just want to hear all about her." he told him. "So why don't you tell me about her when you're ready." he said smiling. "I'm open ears!"

Morgan started to walk away from his desk. Spencer then opened his mouth and said, "Her name's Natalie."

Morgan turned around at the sound of Spencer's voice. "She's really smart. And she's… really cool... and nice." he said. "She's one the best people I've ever met." When the words came out of his mouth he wasn't pleased with the way he was describing her but he didn't want to "gush" over her. Those words he felt didn't do her justice. He wanted to talk about how pretty she was, how funny he thought she was, and everything about her. But he also wanted her all to himself. He wanted her personal to him. He didn't want to tell everyone everything about her.

"She's cool?" he asked laughing. Reid nodded to him.

"She called me a superhero." he told him recalling the time when she told him he needed cape.

Before Morgan could say anything else Hotch called them up to the conference room to discuss the next case. Spencer took his seat after everyone had came in and sat down as well. They got ready for Garcia to start going through the case. She stood up with the clicker in hand. "Two families were found dead outside Denver, Colorado." Garcia went through the entire case. "Andrew Miles and his wife and two daughters were killed in their home and then placed back into bed as if they were sleeping were found two days ago and then last night another family was found. Simon Frank along with his wife and three kids were murdered in the same way and found the same way."

"Wheels up in twenty." Hotch said.

* * *

When he landed he texted Natalie that he had flown to Colorado. On the way to the station he wondered what it was going to be like this time. When getting out of the SUV he thought for a split second that maybe he should talk to someone. Morgan would probably be helpful or even Hotch. But thinking back to the last time he and Hotch discussed Natalie, when he lovingly yelled at him to pay more attention to work, he decided maybe he wasn't the best one to talk to.

It was hours later when Morgan asked Reid to go with him to pick up food. He agreed, with the intentions to talk to him about it. After all, years ago Morgan was the one to tell Reid about his own nightmares. The two got into the car and right on schedule Morgan turned the radio on without even thinking about. He pulled out of the parking lot and started traveling in the direction of the diner where they were going to pick up food. Reid tensed up at the thought of bringing Natalie up but he didn't know the next time he would be able to bring it up alone. Reid stretched out his arm and turned the radio down despite already being criticized because "it was a good song".

Morgan threw if hands up in the air yelling about how he couldn't hear it now. Not like it was make a difference. Spencer didn't even know what they were saying when it was blasting. Spencer quickly and nervously opened his mouth while Morgan was still mumbling to himself about how he was missing out on the song. "Do you ever have nightmares... about Savannah?" he asked, spitting all the words out quickly. "I mean... like with what we do and... I've been having these dreams lately and I just want someone to tell me I'm not insane."

"Sometimes." Morgan responded answering the question. "I used to have minor ones. Now they barely come. But every once in awhile I get one. Usually on long cases or brutal ones."

Reid nodded his head. "When did they stop... being so frequent?"

"A couple months maybe." Morgan told him. "Reid. I learned that you just can't think about both. I know it seems hard but you have to switch it off even just a little. Try and separate her from what you see on the job."

"It sounds so easy."

"I know. And I know it's probably not easy for you considering, but you have to separate them. You'll end up going _insane_ if you don't."

"It's just sometimes in victims I see similarities between them and her and that's what gets me."

"You just got to push through." Morgan told him. "You'll get there."

Reid nodded his head and tried to let it all sink in. At least he wasn't the only one that experienced this. He couldn't even believe that he was feeling this way. It was irrational. He knew the statistics of something happening and they were miniscule. But when seeing it day in and day out it doesn't feel so miniscule. It felt big. But like Morgan had said, he was just going to have to push through it.

* * *

After hearing that Spencer had gone to Colorado. Natalie got up from bed, showered, and dressed in her scrubs. After getting set and being ready to go she got in her car and drove to the hospital. She was set for ER duty today. And she hoped to god it was going to be a slow day. She actually felt a cold coming onto her. She felt drained, stuffy, and sore. She shouldn't have been coming into work but she did anyway and told herself that it was only the ER if it was the ICU she wouldn't have come.

Taking a seat at the computer she started to catch up on paperwork that was left for her. "Uh. Dr. Grierson?" she heard over the counter. She looked up to see three interns standing in front of her. Oh, lord, what now? "We're on your service today."

"What?" she asked. "Well congratulations we're in the ER so make yourselves comfortable."

After about a hour of no major things that needed attending. She leaned back in her chair sipping on a bottle of Pepsi thinking about how much longer this day could get. "Bed three." a nurse said handing her a chart.

"Finally... some real action." she muttered. She looked around for her interns but to be honest she had no idea where they went. She told them to go and do some sutures if people came in and she sent one of them to the outpatient wing to help out with Dr. Wagner. At least he was doing surgeries or something similar. She was stuck her examining idiots who got their hand cut by sticking that hand close to a fan, or burned themselves trying to get something out of the oven. She would have stole some of the sutures from her interns out of pure boredom but then she would have to listen to "We're a teaching hospital" speech.

Natalie took an intern that wasn't doing anything but filling out paperwork, she spotted her when she started to walk towards bed three, and pulled her a long. She handed the intern the chart and then once at bed three the walked behind the curtain to find a woman maybe in her forties. "Tiffany West. Age forty-six. Complaining of dry mouth and dry eyes and also difficulty swallowing. This has been over the past week and a half." the intern said reading the chart.

"I felt I should come in when my vision started to get blurry." said. _Nice choice._ Natalie thought and then she felt her phone go off in her pocket. What are the odds? As soon as she sees a patient he texts her. But anyway... Dry mouth syndrome was what popped into her head at first but the eyes weren't making any sense.

"Have you been taking any medication?" Natalie asked.

"No." she responded. "I thought that maybe with this heat wave I was just dehydrated."

"Bad breath? Bad taste in you mouth?"

"None of that dear..."

"No fever?'

"No."

"Have you been cleaning up anything lately? Maybe dusty where ever you were?"

"No. I haven't."

"Alright." Natalie thought for a second about everything. Everything that came to mind presented itself with a fever. Which this woman said she never had. For insurance she checked anyway but the temperature was normal. "Have you been experiencing joint pain? Rashes? Fatigue?"

"Well, joint pain and fatigue yes... I'm not exactly the bright young flower I used to be."

"We're going to have to take a blood test ma'am is that alright with you?" she nodded her head yes and Natalie commanded the intern to take a vile of blood. She walked over to the cart filled with everything from A-Z and pulled out a piece of paper looking type thing. Natalie came back over and ripped open the packaging. "Mrs. West. I'm going to be doing a Schirmer's test on you to check out your eyes. I won't hurt but I need to do it." She nodded and Natalie stuck the paper like object lightly touching her eye. She smiled when the test took longer than it should have. She wasn't producing tears like she should be. "We'll have those result back for you soon." Natalie told her tossing the instrument in the trash.

The intern followed Natalie over to the nurse's stations with the vile of blood. And the other intern appeared from wherever he had been. "So? What should we test for?"

"Sarcoidosis." the intern that was with her stated. She repeated the symptoms to the other intern and the results of the eye test. The other intern agreed with the Sarcoidosis.

"Maybe pharyngitis too." Steve, the intern said.

"Well." Natalie said. "Should we?"

"Well why not? The symptoms match up."

Natalie thought for second. True the lady wasn't in any real danger if she sent these interns on a witch hunt. But she seemed like a nice lady and she didn't want to keep her here longer than necessary just for some teaching point.

"Most of them do... yes... but sarcoidosis and pharyngitis have what in common? What symptom?" They stared at her, something she knew was going to happen. "Tick tock, guys, I don't have all day."

"Fevers." Not Steve answered. She wasn't to sure what her name was. She had the good feeling in her gut that her name was Daphne.

"There you go! Did she have a fever?"

"No."

"So what do we test for?" she asked again. She received blank stares. "I'll give you a hint... okay? It's autoimmune. So her cells right now are attacking healthy parts of her body and the more we stand here the worse it's going to get. She already started loosing her vision..." Natalie liked putting pressure on people. Yeah it was true it would get worse over time but like weeks or months even not seconds.

"Uh... Sjogren's!" Steve answered.

"Fantastic. Get it to the lab and put the emphasis on fast and Sjogrens. If surgery is needed you can scrub in." Steve's face was plastered with a smile while he took the vile of blood in and and went straight to the lab.

Natalie sat back down on the chair she was on before "Go give Miss West there a bottle of water and offer some eye drops while she waits." Natalie commanded Daphne to do. She nodded and went on her way. Natalie pulled out her cell phone and checked her messages. "I want to talk to you later. I'll call you when I'm done for the day." She smiled at the message.

She texted back, "What are the statistics of Sjogren's syndrome?"

"One in four million." he responded. Before she had the time to answer. "It's actually quite common about a fourth of the population has it and pretty much 90% of those people are women. The tennis player Venus William's was diagnosed with it."

Natalie smiled and responded. "I'm surprised you know Venus Williams."

"She was mentioned in the article I read."

"Of course. Talk to you later."

* * *

 **Sorry if this chapter was a bit lame... I promise next chapter will be better.**

 **As always, Thanks for reading!**

 **Review, favorite, or follow if you like!**

 **Amelia.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Behind Every Corner**

 **Chapter 8**

 **I do not own Criminal Minds**

* * *

 ** _SUMMER_**

* * *

Natalie was working the afternoon shift until midnight so she had the time to do nothing. Absolutely nothing. She laid in bed for quite some time until she was hungry enough to get up and go get an early lunch. She had set alarm so she could talk to Spencer before he went to the station for the day. He was _still_ in Colorado. However she had checked her phone and groaned the fact that he had texted her about two hours earlier to tell her that he was going to into the station earlier than he had expected.

She showered and changed to get ready for work. And when she got into the car she suddenly realized how much she missed Spencer already. It had been two days since he left and she was thinking that it wouldn't be much of a problem if she could talk to him throughout the day. But he was always so busy. An she was always just so busy. Natalie powered through work because it was something to take her mind off of him. She knew, rather hoped, in the back of her mind that she would get used to him being away for so long.

Unfortunately the case took much longer than either of them anticipated. Spencer was going on the fourth day in Colorado. And two more families ended up dead before they caught the man who was working with a group of three others. It was the morning of the fourth day and Natalie was getting off work from working all night. It was about four in the morning. Right around the time Spencer needed a reminder to eat or drink something so he didn't fall over in a starving state.

She dialed his number while she sat in the car and waited for answer. "I already had a bagel and a cup of tea." was the answer she received when he picked up the phone. She hadn't even said anything. She smiled at the routine that they had started since the Colorado case. She bugged him about eating every time they talked because she knew that if she didn't he would end up deciding not to eat and to work instead.

"You haven't slept yet have you?" she asked not being shy about the disappointment in her voice.

"I slept three hours." he responded as though three hours meant twenty and she should be shunned for even asking the ridiculous question. "I don't have the time to sleep."

"Spence." she scolded. "It's four in the morning."

"Hotch isn't sleeping. And you're up." he said blaming the team captain and apparently her. "I can't... I get through information faster than them. I could find something very vital in the time right now that they wouldn't find until days from now." he took a pause and she could hear pages turning on the other end of the phone.

"Take a break at least. Get fresh air." she told him. "Maybe getting some time away will help you… you can come back with a clear conscious?"

She heard him hit his hands off of the books in frustration. She could hear him biting his tongue. She was fine with it if he was getting mad at her. He could get pretty sassy with her though when he wanted to. "I-I-I can't." he said angrily. "Besides this is like a break." he told her. "Talking to you."

"I can hear you turning pages in the background…" she muttered. "Tell me what you're reading."

"I am reading three different textbooks on human sacrifice." he stated. "The families are put in the same way every time and stabbed in the same spots so it has to be some sort of sacrifice but I can't find anything." Of course he's reading three books at once. Was there _any_ other way?

"Where are they being stabbed?"

"The liver, heart, and lungs." Spencer said. She heard all of the pages turning in the background during his pauses. "There's sacrifice with the separate organs but not all together. But there has to be some religion that uses all these organs. They're all the organs necessary for survival so it would make sense to offer them to some God." she heard books rumble around in the background. "Unless they're worshiping multiple Gods. Like a group each sacrificing their own person… It would make sense considering there's so many victims… and the different genders in the victims... and ages."

"Are you even allowed to be talking to be about this?" she asked.

"You won't tell anyone." he mumbled.

"Alright…" she said thinking about all of this death and murder… How did he not go crazy? She would need some comic relief from hearing all about the murdering if that was her job. Natalie concluded that she would be fired probably on the spot for being inappropriate. She mumbled under her breath and laughed at herself while she heard Spencer on the other end turning pages.

"What did you say?" he asked.

"I'm sorry it was awful. I was just trying to not think about all the murders." she told him. "You can break up with me if you want."

"No...no. Really… What did you say?"

"Something about how those people's organs could have been used for donation… but they were stabbed so it doesn't matter. Plus their bodies probably were dead for too long anyway. I know I'm a horrible person talking about murder victims and their... spare parts."

"Wait. Nat."

"What?" she said. "My horrible joke _did_ make you want to break up with me? I completely understand."

"No… no, no that's not what I meant." he said. "All of those are viable organs can be donated?" he asked.

"Well. Yeah. Without the stabby stabby." she responded. "You know that." He obviously knew that those organs were commonly donated. He was Spencer Reid for God sakes. The all knowing man who walked the Earth. A human wikipedia.

"I gotta call you back." he said and then hung up the phone on her. She pulled the phone away from her ear seeing the "call ended" pop up on the screen. _Well then._ Natalie shrugged her shoulders and then turned the car on to leave the parking lot. She needed a nap. And to get her head out of murder town. Far away from there. She was wired to save someone. Not talk about them once they were dead.

Natalie got back to her house and lazily walked upstairs to get to sleep. She pulled the covers up over her and she fell asleep quicker than she thought she would.

* * *

Spencer hung up the phone on Natalie and quickly pulled himself up off the floor in the least graceful way possible and almost tripped over his stacks of books. He made his way to the board receiving a glance from Hotch and Rossi who were sitting at the table looking at crime scene photos again. "Lungs, the heart, and the liver can be donated from organ donors to people who need them." Reid said. "I read in all of the victims files that they were organ donors..."

"Well, we sure follow you Reid but what good are the organs?" Hotch said turning pages in the file in front of him.

"No, no." Reid said. "What if the unsub is stabbing organs of his victims because he doesn't want them to donate?"

"But what's it to him?" Rossi asked.

"I don't know maybe he had a bad experience with organ donating."

"Or perhaps he himself is against organ donation? So he stabs the organs so no one could have them." Hotch added.

"He must have went through that trauma himself though. Maybe his own family donated organs and he's using these people's organs as a surrogate for his own family."

"To put them once and for all to rest."

"Well why not just kill the people who received his families' organs?" Rossi asked.

"Maybe he can't find them or maybe he already killed them and killing them didn't satisfy him." Reid added.

"We better get Garcia on the phone and get everyone here." Hotch said. Rossi and Reid nodded in affirmation. Spencer stood near the board annoyed that he didn't think of this sooner. If he had he could have saved people's lives. Stopped the unsub from killing people. This job was a blessing and curse. Seeing the answer in front of you and realizing you should have figured it out quicker always haunted Reid. It got to everyone he imagined. But Natalie. She wasn't even part of the team she didn't even have to be here to make a break through. Hell, she didn't even _know_ she made a break through. She was trying to lighten the mood. He wanted to be back in DC. He couldn't wait to get back on that plane.

* * *

Natalie woke up around noon and got up to shower and change. She put on comfier clothing and headed downstairs to get some food. She checked her phone while pulling out leftover pizza from the fridge. The pizza box was placed on her palm and she held a bottle of soda in the other. While balancing the pizza box she shut the door with her foot and nearly fell over. Natalie began to eat the cold pizza and sat down on her island bar stool. She saw three texts from Spencer. The first was him telling her that he just ate. Another telling her to eat. And the third that told her that she was genius. Whatever that meant. Natalie shoved the cold pizza down her throat out of starvation.

She texted back, "Ate some pizza. Get home soon." She walked into the living room and put the on the TV after grabbing another slice of cold pizza. She turned on a television movie on LIfeTime that she wasn't even paying attention to.

After she was done eating she wandered into her music room pulling out the sheet music that she bought a couple days ago. Mozart. She put it on the piano and started to play it. The only reason she bought it was because it was one of Spencer's favorites. And she wanted to learn it. She spent a few hours in the room playing the piano. But then she got hungry again. She really need to start eating better. Natalie thought about all the unhealthy food she ate in the past couple days. Yeah, she needed to eat healthier.

She got up from the piano and walked into the kitchen and poured a bowl of cereal. She really did have a bad diet. She poured the cold milk in and started eating. She picked up her phone seeing three messages. "Getting on the plane.", 'Home.", "Where are you right now?"

"Home."

"Send me your address." he commanded. Spencer had never been to her house before and it wasn't that she had a problem with it but it wasn't at all clean for anyone to be coming. But then again when had she ever cared about how clean her house was? She couldn't even think of the last time she cleaned her house.

* * *

After hours on the plane of reading he had gotten antsy about getting off the damned thing. Why aren't we going faster? Planes are supposed to be fast right? He felt like everything was dragging on so slowly! "JJ." he said to her. She looked up from her magazine. "How long have we been in the air?"

"Like an hour." she responded.

"An hour?!" he said back to her. At any other time she wouldn't have thought about it much but she narrowed her eyes at him wondering why he didn't know how long he was on the plane himself after all he was someone that counted down to the minute. He knew exactly how long he worked for the BAU he should now exactly how long they were on the plane.

"We'll be landing soon." she said looking back down to her magazine.

"Do you want to play cards?" he asked her.

"What? And lose?" she responded. Spencer was great at cards and she wasn't really feeling up to playing with him when she already knew she never stood a chance at winning in the first place. JJ watched his eyes dart over to the side as if he was hiding something. "What is it?" she asked.

When Spencer landed he knew exactly who he wanted to see. And now. After a long battle with himself over whether or not he should go to her house he decided that he wanted to see her so badly that his nerves were not going to stop him. He commanded her to send him her address and she did like he assumed she would. Once he got into his car he pulled up the GPS and was on his way to her house.

He pulled into a spot next to her jeep. Her house was in Belle Haven. It was a nice house. It was brick, old, and it wasn't huge but it wasn't small either. Everything about it seemed to be just right. Before he could do anything such as going and knocking at the door he heard the door open while he was getting himself out of the car. He had his bag in his hand but he didn't want to waste another second and he left it on the hood of his car and ran to embrace her in a hug.

* * *

She walked into the living room and turned back on the TV looking for something to watch. She landed on the Food Network's show Chopped and she left it on because she knew she wasn't going to find something better. After the episode ended she heard a car outside pull up. She got up from the couch and walked to the front door. She opened it to see Spencer getting out of his car. He grabbed his bag but then left it on the roof of his car and ran up the stairs and pulled her into a hug. Natalie started laughing and said, "Missed you too."

"No." he said putting her down. "Well… I, I did miss you but that's not why I'm hugging you."

"What is it?" she asked bringing him inside.

"Organ donations." he said.

"What?"

"The unsub was stabbing them all in the organs that his wife and children gave for donation. The unsub was against donation but his wife listed herself and their two daughters as organ donors. So he started stabbing families in the organs so they couldn't donate either. But then he would put them in their beds because he felt remorse for killing them."

Natalie stood there shaking her head. "I'm sorry…" she said.

"Sorry for what? You helped me figure it out."

"That you have to know that."

"Oh." he responded frowning. But his frown turned into a giant smile and said, "But when you joked about organs being donated that made me realize what we were actually looking for. You technically solved the case."

Spencer continued to look at her with that smile on his face. After they decided that a nice relaxing on the couch was the best thing to do. Natalie convinced him to help her make pancakes. Which went smoothly once she told him to just set the table and do other things a child could do because he just kept getting in her way and she took her pancakes incredibly seriously.

Spencer wandered off and started looking at her pictures in her tall bookcases he admired. He wished he had something like these in his apartment. Her living room was small. But the cozy kind of small. Brown leather couches with soft throw blankets surrounded a fireplace and above the fireplace was a television connected to the wall. She had this armchair over in the corner that was decorated with a pillow and he could tell that no one ever sat in the chair. Which was stupid because the chair was old and beautiful. Her house was very... vintage. In a way it reminded him of his own apartment. But she had flowers and candles. He sniffed the candles sitting on the side tables they all smell liked lavender. Spencer walked back over to the bookcases and looked through the various pictures on the shelves. Jealousy rose in the pit of his stomach when he noticed pictures of her with some other man. There were other pictures like the picture of past friends when she graduated undergraduate and medical school. "Who's that?" he asked pointing to the man in the pictures once Natalie appeared by his side.

"That is my friend Patrick." she stated. "He works at the hospital with me. We're best friends."

Best. Friends. "You don't have any pictures of your parents?" he asked. Spencer mulled over the fact that her and this man were best friends. It put him a little on edge. The guy was the size of Morgan and looked like a jock that would have picked on him in high school. Then again Natalie looked like someone who would pick on him.

"No…" she said turning silent.

"Actually. Nat. You never really talked about your parents before."

"Well. I wouldn't really say we're close. I haven't seen them since I graduated high school." she told him.

"Not even when you went to college? Or before you were left for Afghanistan?"

"No. I was really never good enough for them so after I graduated high school I moved out after we got in a huge fight. I never went back, they never looked for me, called me or cared. I did the same." She said it so easily. Like she was stating a fact of nature. Like the sky is blue.

"But their your parents." he responded furrowing his brow.

"Yes. I do know what parents are."

"Aren't they... worried?" he asked.

"I doubt it."

"Sorry. I'm just trying to understand. Why didn't you get along?"

"I was never smart enough or good enough for my father. And I was never social or pretty enough for my mother. I firmly believe my parents didn't even love each other because they always fought and never saw eye to eye. My father wanted me to be top of the class... pretty much be the smartest person to ever come from Portland. He sent me to a private school. My days involved getting up at five in the morning, studying, eating breakfast, going to school, coming home to a piano lesson, studying, dinner, and then I would be tutored in subjects a year ahead of me until it was time to get to sleep. Wake up and start all over." Natalie explained. "My mother on the other hand wanted me to be the perfect society girl that got away with everything based on my name. She dragged me to dinner parties, charity galas, fundraisers, she forced me to hang out with people from an early age that were rich and bound to be the popular crowd in school. I had to beg my parents to let me join clubs and sports. As you know I was in swimming... My mother didn't have a problem with me being a cheerleader but my father absolutely detested it. He claimed it would lower my IQ. I had to beg again when I wanted to join the theatre program. But eventually they let me. Every thing was a schedule. Where I had to be, what I had to wear, and who I supposed to hang out with. Once I graduated I was regretting the decision to go to Yale. I wanted to go to NYU. We got in a big argument and I left taking a lot of my stuff with me. I moved in with a teacher I was pretty close with who knew what my life was really like and that was that." Natalie frowned looking up at him. "Never saw them after that."

"You went to Yale anyway?"

"Yeah." she responded heading back into the kitchen. "The teacher I moved in with convinced me that I worked too hard to let Yale go."

Spencer tried to imagine Natalie as... punctual... dressed in things like a school uniform or pearl necklaces with expensive gowns. But he just couldn't. None of the things that she did back then matched who she was now. She must have been absolutely miserable. Considering the first day he met her she almost got herself into a bar fight was the exact opposite of what she just said. "I'm sorry you had to go through that." he said as he watched her make the pancake batter.

"It's whatever. It's in the past." she said with a giant smile. "The point is I hated my life so much I had to change it. I couldn't go through another day like that." she shook her head thinking back to the days were all she did was study at her desk in her room. "When I turned eighteen, this was before my senior year of high school, I went on anti-depressants. There were a few times were I wasn't even a tiny bit happy and those days i thought... I just got bad thoughts and those thoughts scared me. i knew I needed help. I went to the doctor by myself. And since I was eighteen ,as long as I said so, my parents wouldn't be able to find out."

Her? Depressed? She was like a flaming ball of sunshine. He couldn't picture it if he tried.

While she made the pancakes she gave him the easy task of getting plates and forks. After he told her about how when he first got an apartment here he almost burned down the building because of some mishap with the stove she didn't trust him doing anything. Natalie made the pancakes for the both of them and they enjoyed a plate full. After their food they went back to the couch and sat down to watch television. The entire time, even though Spencer was a little tense at first they sat right next to each other and he held onto her hand. After a little he deemed it as a nice feeling being so close her and touching her brought it to a while new level.

It was two TV movies later that Spencer opened his mouth to ask if she wanted to go out to get ice cream but when he looked over to her he saw that she had fallen asleep. About an hour ago he felt her head fall on his shoulder but he didn't think much of it other than the pure panic that filled his chest. She was cuddled up to him, sleeping using him as a pillow. They were still holding hands. Spencer didn't want to wake her up. So he shut his mouth and avoided moving to much. Well how the hell was he going to leave then? He faced a dilemma. Wake her up and leave. Or try his darnedest and most likely be embarrassed when something that would only happen to him occur.

Thankfully ten minutes later she stirred awake and immediately apologized for falling asleep on him. She looked to the time on the grandfather clock and groaned seeing that it was near nine. "Sorry for keeping you prisoner."

"You didn't keep me prisoner." he responded.

Natalie's used his thigh to push herself up and she got up and stretched. "You have work tomorrow don't you?"

"Yes. But Hotch is letting us come in late. I don't have to be there until ten."

"Do you want to stay?" she asked.

Spencer stared at her. "W-what?"

"You know... like a sleepover."

"Right." he mumbled still staring at her trying to find the answer. As if staring at her would make it magically appear. Stay? He didn't have a clear response. Or an idea of what to say. He swallowed hard trying to find the answer in his brain.

"You don't have to if you don't want to." she said seeing the emotional struggle on his face.

"U-uh." Spencer furrowed his brow and looked up to her. Inside his head he was screaming for help. "No, I... I just never..." He probably sounded so lame to her. The fact that he had to admit that he never spent the night with a girl before made his face pink. "I never stayed over before...ever."

"Here." she said smiling at him. She reached out her hand and he took it in his own. He pulled himself off the couch. Realizing that his go bag with his other clothes were in his car he quickly ran out and brought them in. She pulled him upstairs and told him he could change in the bathroom. After he was done changing in her bathroom connected to her bedroom he waited while she did the same. Despite it being an invasion of privacy he looked around her room. Just like the rest of her house it was cozy. She didn't have a lot of personal stuff in her bedroom but he shrugged and sat down on the bed waiting. She walked out of the bathroom in a over sized shirt and shorts and jumped into bed.

Spencer moved up closer to her and laid himself in her bed, which was extremely comfy. Not because of the blankets, the pillows, or the mattress itself. It smelled like her. "You okay?" she asked. He looked over to her. She was turned onto her side looking at him with a smile on her face. She was always smiling. He nodded his head and turned on his side to face her. He felt a burning in his chest. Nervousness flooded his entire body. He wanted to kiss her. His body knew that he wanted to kiss her before the thought even came to mind. "Spence?"

Spencer brought himself closer to her and leaned in and kissed her on the lips. It was nothing major. It was more like a peck. She smiled at him widely and he smiled back feeling the excitement that filled his body. After she was silent for a little he got worried that maybe she didn't like it or she didn't want him to do it the first place. But those worries went away when she leaned into him and kissed him on the lips back. His hand went to her cheek and he cupped her face holding onto her. He felt her hands run to the back of his neck and with every touch electricity ran across his skin. She moved away from his lips and wrapped her arms around his waist and his arms went behind and pulled her in closer, so her head rested on his chest. He never felt more... alive.

* * *

 **Thanks for everything! I'm going to try and update as much as I can but I'm at school now so I don't know when the next chance will be.**

 **Review, favorite, or follow if you like!**

 **Amelia.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Behind Every Corner**

 **Chapter 9**

 **I do not own Criminal Minds**

* * *

 _ **SUMMER**_

* * *

The next morning Spencer woke up to his alarm, an alarm that went off at nine. It was hard to believe that he slept basically twelve hours. But it was the best sleep he had ever had. She was no longer wrapped up in his arms she had moved a little ways away from him but it was fine because he remember waking up for a couple seconds during the night and feeling like he was swimming in a pool of sweat. He got out of bed and dressed. Shit. He hoped they wouldn't notice that he was going to be wearing the same thing they just saw him in. Correction. He knew that they were going to notice. After changing he fixed his hair in the bathroom mirror and came back out to see that she had woken up. "You have to go already?" she asked him still half asleep.

He nodded his head and gave her a half smile. "Paperwork is waiting." he responded.

"Come back here when your done." she demanded.

"Don't you have work?" he asked.

"I work forty eight hours tomorrow. I'll be gone the whole weekend."

Spencer frowned when hearing that she was going to be at the hospital all weekend and he wasn't going to be able to see her unless he visited her at the hospital. "Next week is your birthday." he stated.

"I know."

Spencer sat down on the bed to put his shoes on. She completely disregarded the fact that he was set to leave and that he just fixed his hair and pulled him down on top of her. She kissed the side of his face when he got close to her. Spencer then kissed her on the cheek and laid there with her for a little while trying to pretend work wasn't waiting for him. "I'm so glad you kissed me." she said to him. He smiled to her and she smiled back and kissed the top of his head.

"Me too." he mumbled.

"We should do something for dinner." she mentioned still pinning him to the bed amid the blankets.

"Like what?" he asked holding her close by pulling her by her waist.

"Anything." she laughed still running his hands through his hair.

"You know. I just fixed that." he said to her. He pulled himself up off the bed and finished putting his shoes on and then he fixed his hair again making sure it wasn't too awful to head to work. He looked down at her buried underneath the covers. "What were you doing two years ago?" he asked.

"Uh." she looked at him with furrowed brows. "Why?"

Spencer in fact wondered why he himself was asking this question in the first place. It was nearly two years ago that Maeve died. And it was on his mind always about what Natalie was doing two years ago compared to him. It was mostly out of curiosity. He hadn't told her about her yet and this morning wasn't the time for the that. "Just wondering." he responded.

"Well... I was working at the hospital." she said. "I've been there for five years."

"That's all?" he asked. Natalie sat up in the bed and looked at him longing him to stay.

"I don't know. I might have had a boyfriend but I also might have been in-between boyfriends... if that's what you mean..." She smiled and then got up out of bed and followed Spencer downstairs. Spencer was looking at the time every chance he got because he knew he was going to be running late. Later than usual anyway. Natalie demanded that he stay for her to make him tea or something which he did even though he said that he should already be out the door. She handed him a tumblr with tea in it and before taking it from her hands he walked over put his arms around her waist and kissed her on the lips. "I got to go." he said when they broke away.

She nodded and gave him the tumblr. "Call me when you leave work." she told him.

"Will do." he kissed her on the cheek one last time before he left her in the kitchen and walked out the front door.

* * *

Natalie stayed awake after he left since she slept so much that night. Normally she would wake up in the middle of the night and it would take her forever to fall back to sleep. But last night she easily fell asleep and stayed asleep. Except when she woke up feeling like she was being smothered. She rolled over to the side feeling extremely sweaty. For such a skinny man he emitted so much heat. Natalie had herself a bowl of cereal and she ate it before heading into the living room to clean. She was surprised Spencer didn't comment about how her house was a mess. She thought there was going to a small side comment but nothing. There were letters she didn't open sprawled out on the kitchen coffee table. There were half opened soda cans and bottles of water on the side tables furthermore the amount of laundry on her bathroom floor was getting out of hand. But not one word came from his mouth. It was like he didn't even notice it.

Natalie already got out her computer and checked her emails. Sorting through the junk and the coupons. She deleted her weekly email from her father. He sent one every week. And every week she got rid of it. She had told Spencer that they never reached out to her and she wasn't about to come clean about it anytime soon. He just wouldn't understand. Spencer's father left him when he was younger and she had one her entire life until she moved out, he would see that as a blessing. Where as really it was a nightmare. She would have loved if her own father left. It sounded ignorant. But it was the truth. He treated her like garbage and her mother even more so. He wasn't physically abusive but emotionally he hit them.

When she thought about it she realized that maybe he would understand. After all wasn't it his job to understand that sort of thing? Either way she wasn't about to openly talk about these emails she got. Patrick was the only one who knew about them and she was keeping it that way for now. Natalie once shutting down her laptop thought about replying to the email. Every time she deleted it she wondered if she should reach out. She never did. She tried to picture what would happen if she did. But really it just seemed like some hell hole she would have to dig herself out of once more. Her father would be mad that she wasn't the head of a hospital yet. And her mother would be annoyed that she wasn't married or had children yet. She was supposed to be such an amazing doctor and be an incredible house wife at the same time. That wasn't possible.

Natalie got up from the desk and sat down on the couch. She wasn't going to do anything about her parents. If they wanted to reconcile with her they were going to have to do a lot better than an email a week. How they even got her email was beyond her. She didn't doubt that they hired some private investigator and then never took the initiative to come themselves and instead hid behind a computer screen.

She considered the backlash she was going to get from Spencer. For lying to him. Taking a deep breath and letting it out didn't help.

* * *

Spencer got the BAU later than he usually would. He blamed himself for not leaving her place at the time he should have. But he got tea out of it. And more kissing. He sat down at his desk and drank half of the tea that was in his tumblr already. He was going to need more tea. He pulled out the stack of paperwork and began reading and writing. Morgan walked in at his usual late time and shoved his jacket off. Something had been bothering Spencer he had to admit. And that was Natalie's birthday. He told her he was going to find the perfect gift. But everything he thought of didn't seem good enough. He would just ask her but he also wanted it to be a surprise. Morgan was going to make fun of him, and he also wouldn't be any help. He could already imagine him suggesting the option of buying a bra or something of that nature. _Yeah_ , he was going to walk into some place like that and be able to purchase a bra. JJ was going to be the best option if he was going to get an answer out of anyone.

He walked over to JJ's desk and stood there for a second already regretting that he came over but opened his mouth anyway. "Hey. uh. JJ." he said.

"What's up Spence?" she asked looking up from her bag of potato chips. Spencer realized it was weird that she was eating chips this early in the morning but he decided it was better to just ignore it rather than saying something about it and receiving a lecture like, "I'm a grown woman who can do what she wants.". He received that a couple times after telling her that she should start eating more healthy and also when he told her that it would be cheaper for her to take the metro to work rather than using the gas in her car.

"So." he started out. "Natalie's birthday…"

"Oh. Is that your surgeon girlfriend?" she asked with a giant smile on her face.

Giving into the peer pressure he said, "Yes." and quickly went back to asking his question. He was fairly certain that the people in the relationship had to deem each boyfriend or girlfriend but then again he didn't have much to go on. "I'm not really a great gift giver so I was going to ask you for some suggestions. You're a girl and she's a girl."

JJ couldn't deny his logic so she just nodded. "Well what she does like?" she asked.

"Well." he said thinking back to Natalie. "She likes musicals, Harry Potter, she talks about talk show hosts a lot, uhm, she runs and swims for exercise, and she has a obsession with pancakes and ice cream. Oh and she also really likes penguins. I can't take her to a musical or something obviously because of our job and her job so I'm at a loss."

"Take her to the zoo?" she suggested. "Then go to an ice cream parlor? Rather than giving her a gift maybe give her a day that she'll remember."

"Maybe." he said thinking over the idea. "Maybe I'll ask Garcia too." he said walking off to go to her computer lab. JJ watched him leave and called out, "You're Welcome." as he walked out the doors. JJ then muttered to herself about how he wasn't even going to take her advice. If Will took her to the zoo that would be a pretty great day because for one thing it was free. And the second she loved looking at all the cute animals. Who doesn't?

Spencer found himself walking into Garcia's lab, again… regretting coming but, he had to get more ideas. "Hey Garcia." he said walking into the room.

"Oh. Reid." she said turning around in her chair. As per usual she was wearing bright colors that could probably light up the entire room. Or even glow in the dark. He wouldn't be surprised if they glowed in the dark. Actually. He would have to test that theory one day. "What brings you?" she asked.

"I have a question." he stated sitting down in the spare chair she had. "Don't make a big deal…" he started to say.

"Ohhhhh." she said getting excited and showing her teeth in an ear to ear smile. "Is this about the girl you've been seeing? The surgeon who was in the military that you introduced to Morgan and not anyone else, _I_ by the way am waiting, I'm so happy that you found someone for you Reid. I bet she's really pretty and really smart and you'll have to tell me all about her." her caffeinated response to his simple phrase ended with her staring him down waiting for him to spill everything and anything he knew about Natalie.

"First." he said. "I didn't introduce her to anymore. Morgan just saw her and that was it." he subconsciously cursed Morgan for going around and telling everyone that he "met her". "Second. Her name is Natalie." Garcia made a swooning noise at her name and whispers "oh my god I love that name" to him while he continued on to say, "And third. I have a problem. I told her i was going to get her a birthday present but I don't know what to get her." he confessed. "I'm not so great at gift giving. And I figured since you're a girl you might know something nice to get for her."

"Okay!" she said. "I am on it." she pulled out a pen and a notepad. "So. how much money are you planning on spending on her?" she asked.

"Um." he said looking around the room as if the answer was written on the walls. "I don't know."

Garcia's arms fell out of disappointment. "Well how long have you been secretly dating? And keeping her away from us?"

Reid rolled his eyes. He was never going to live this down was he? "Well we've been with each other for fifty-two days, seven hours and thirteen minutes." Spencer said. "Would that be considered dating?"

"Let's just say yes." Garcia said."Maybe spend like thirty bucks on her?" she suggested.

"Well I want to get her something perfect so I don't really care about the price tag."

"Does she wear make-up?"

"Well, not really." he told her.

"What does she like?" Garcia asked. Spencer huffed realizing he was going to have to say her interests again. Once he did Garcia pondered the things that he would be able to do with that. "Okay." she said going to her computer. "SO I have an idea but it has nothing to do with the things she likes."

Spencer didn't say anything he just stared. "Well what is your idea then?" he asked. "What if she hates it?"

"Oh, Reid honey. It's coming from you so I don't think she'll hate it."

"Alright." he said letting her suggest whatever it was she was going to do. "What is it?"

"Here's what I think we should do…"

* * *

Spencer walked out of Garcia's lab with her and and back up to the conference room.

They walked into the conference room and Spencer made eye contact with Morgan who was grinning suspiciously at him. JJ had just moved away from him so he thought of the worst which was Morgan knew that he was asking for present ideas. He inwardly screamed thinking about what kind of torture he was going to put through next.

Rossi was at the table before he walked it so he was sure that Rossi heard whatever JJ said as well. But Spencer knew he wouldn't toy with him the way Morgan did sometimes. In fact he was pretty sure Rossi was just going to not even mention it like a normal person would.

Hotch walked into the room and sat down and Garcia started to walk through the next case, "Okay, Fort Smith, Arkansas…."

* * *

Spencer got on the plane, sat down, and Morgan sat down across from him eyeing him waiting for the right moment to ask about Natalie. Spencer watched his mouth open and then the words started to flow right out of his mouth. "So I heard that it's your girl's birthday soon."

"June 14th he told Morgan."

"Did you decide what to get her yet?" Morgan asked.

Eager to completely derail him from what Garcia suggest he simply said, "No, I'm not sure what's good enough."

Morgan shook his head and said, "For Savannah's birthday I planned on taking the whole weekend to take her camping. I had a whole thing set up with a picnic and you know things like that… but then of course… we got called in."

Spencer stared at him for a second before saying. "I don't think she likes camping and neither do I." he responded. "So I don't think that really helps."

Morgan was used to Spencer completely missing that he was just telling him something and not providing any point to it. "Get her a necklace." Morgan suggested.

"What do necklaces have to do with camping?" Spencer asked.

"No." Morgan said. "Completely unrelated to my camping story."

"Oh." he said. "Maybe. She doesn't really wear jewelry though." Spencer told him. "Even when she's not wearing scrubs."

"Reid, she's a girl. She's bound to like jewelry." Morgan said. "Did she ever suggest doing something fun that you haven't done yet?"

Spencer thought back to all their conversations and remembered one of their firsts. "She said she likes, uh, white water rafting. And hiking... but not intense hiking. More like a walk... but she calls it hiking."

"There you go, take her somewhere like what."

It didn't seem like such a bad idea there were parks in the area that had waterfalls. And it would be really pretty to take her to one. He added that to his mental list. "That actually doesn't sound like a bad idea."

"See. I knew I could be helpful." Morgan said.

"What are you helpful with?" Hotch asked walking past them from getting a drink from the mini fridge. Oh no. Not Hotch.

"Helpful with finding something pretty boy could do with his girlfriend." Morgan quickly said. Spencer kicked him underneath the table. Hard. "Ow!" he shouted.

Both of them received looks from Hotch and then he walked back to wherever he was sitting. Great. Now. Hotch knew. Hotch was like the protective father that Natalie was going to have to meet one day. Now that he knew about her. Rossi knew. But that didn't concern him. Rossi was the cool uncle that gave the children their first beer. JJ was the sister, along with Garcia. Morgan was the older brother that picked on him. And that left Spencer as the baby.

"Boys behave." JJ said after Morgan complained that there was going to be a bruise. Scratch that. JJ was like the mom and Garcia was the sister.

* * *

Out of the blue she got a call to come in a fill in a shift in the ER because one of their doctors had called in very sick. Figuring that she wouldn't have anything better to do for the whole day she accepted and came. The shift was only until three so she would be done before their date tonight. Natalie arrived at work feeling somewhat guilty about not giving Spencer the whole story about her parents. Getting it out of her head for the day she shoved off her stuff and forced it all into the locker right before changing into the scrubs. She walked out of the locker room and was joined by Patrick who had been waiting outside the door for her. "What? You stalk me now?" she asked.

"I saw you walk in." he stated. "Just got done eating breakfast."

She tossed her hair into a messy bun on top of her head and they continued on down the hallway towards the ER. Natalie didn't let it bother her too much but lately Patrick wasn't so... willing to share about the women he had been hooking up with. Normally, he spent the whole day sexualizing everything he could and telling Natalie about all the awkward air in-between him and some of the other employees here at the hospital. Natalie tried to even ask the past couple days, actually weeks, about the his "women troubles" but he would just shrug his shoulders and pretend she didn't even ask the question. "You here all day?" she asked.

"I'm behind on surgeries. So it looks like it. My first case needed some more time to stabilize before I did anything."

"Hopefully I won't be here long..." she mumbled to herself. They both made their way down the hallway to the ER just in time to run into one of the nurses that Patrick had slept with. She knew for a fact. Except she avoided all eye contact with him. Almost like she was trying her best to get away from him rather than the death glare he usually received. "What the hell was that?" she asked in a high pitched tone.

"What?" he asked. "Me walking?"

"No!" she shouted. "What's wrong with you?! You've been acting... odd."

"Nothing." he stated.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Positive?"

"Nat, it's all good."

"You're lying."

"I'm not."

"You are."

"Nat!" he shouted stopped them in their tracks and shooting her a glare. Everyone was staring at them. The surgical duo that were inseparable at the hip and barely were seen without the other unless scheduling conflicted with them. Natalie glanced around the the nurses, the techs, and the doctors eyeing their general direction but not trying to make it obvious. Which. Made it look even more obvious. "Just." he said looking around at the all the people. "I'll talk to you later." And then he stormed off down the hallway out of the ER. Making her stand alone while everyone stared.

* * *

It was later in the evening. The plane had landed and they were all about to go get something to eat. He realized he hadn't called Natalie yet. Spencer took out his phone to call Natalie. He had texted her but she didn't answer. Her call went through the rings and then took him to voicemail. Maybe she got called into work... no... she would have texted him and told him. He called again becoming concerned. Finally after the third ring she picked up her phone. "Sorry. I was changing. I didn't hear it go off. But I was meaning to call you anyway." she stated.

"Oh." he said. "Well. You first."

"Okay." she said to him. "I'm gonna have to do a raincheck tonight."

"That's actually fine because I got pulled into work too."

"Oh. No. I'm... um... yeah."

"Sorry?" he asked.

"I was talking to someone else. Actually can I call you back in like five minutes?" she asked.

"Sure." Spencer said sounding skeptical. Before she hung up he heard a man's voice in the background. He put his phone in his pocket going to the worst thought that popped into his head. He nervously waiting for her call back but she never did. So he waited until later that night to call her.

The entire time they were at the station, when he wasn't thinking about the case, he was thinking about that phone call. Who was she with? Why was she with him? His fingers tapped the table and he was thinking he was starting to go insane if he didn't get these thoughts out his head. After they all retired to their hotel rooms for the night he sat on his bed looking at his phone making sure he didn't miss her call or a text or any sign that she tried to contact him. Giving up. He called back.

It rang twice. But she answered. Music blared in the background. "Hold on." he heard her shout. Eventually it was quiet and he could only guess she walked outside where ever she was.

"Nat?" he said into the phone becoming angry. He didn't know why he was angry but he was fuming.

"Sorry. It was so loud. I had to come outside in order to hear you."

"Where, uh, are you?" he asked.

"I don't really know. Some random bar."

Was she drunk? So drunk she didn't know where she was? "Is this what you were skipping our dinner for?" he asked feeling the frustration well up inside him. He felt like he was blowing this way out, more that it need to be. But he was angry. He pinpointed the problem. She was taking a raincheck on their date so she could go to some random bar? That she didn't even know the name of!

"Uh."

"I'll take that as a yes."

"Spencer."

"I'm actually really tired I got to go."

"Spencer. I. Patrick dragged me out... it wasn't me who wanted to come."

"Patrick?" that pissed him off even more. Her Morgan-like friend? She was going to ditch him to go to a random bar with Patrick.

"Yeah." she responded.

"Like I said I'm tried." he said quickly and then said, "I'll... talk to you later." Without letting her get another word in he hung up the phone and turned it off. He put it on his bed side table and sat there for some time. How long? He wasn't sure.

* * *

 **Wow. It's been awhile. Surprise. I had some time to blow. Get some stress out and now heres a chapter.**

 **Sorry if this chapter was kind of... rushy... towards the end. Next chapter will explain everything.**

 **Thank you for the reviews, the favorites, and the follows!**

 **(sorry for the cliffhanger there... because I probably won't be updating until like Thanksgiving break.)**

 **I apologize a second time.**

 **Amelia**


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